Sonic the Hedgehog: A new world
by DarkCloud780
Summary: Disclaimer: Wow, I almost forgot this...I do not own Sonic or any affiliated characters. Sega does. SonicXBlaze is primary couple here. It starts when Sonic is attacked by an organization working for Eggman, and Sonic is once again thrown into adventure..
1. Chapter 1

Sonic: A new world

_**K, for starters, anyone who read my last story probably knows that I intended to make a sequel to it. Well, as it turns out, I cut that plan off....even though I left a cliffhanger. I think I'll leave it just like that. This story won't have Female Tails (though Tails will be OLDER! I hate how young he is in the games), but one of the couples will be SonicXBlaze. I find it to be a pretty popular pairing, and I'm going to use it here. Please enjoy!**_

Chapter One: Your vacation just ended, Sonic!

"Finally, I get some rest and relaxation! Hoo, boy! I thought Eggman was never going to let me off the leash!" Sonic said to himself rather loudly. He sat on the beach of Emerald Ocean, gazing up into the sky with his cool shades on. Nothing there interrupted his silent rest, except for the occasional seagull flying above head. Everything was naturally tranquil around him, and there wasn't another soul in sight. This was because he chose a spot on the beach far away from the city it was near, Station Square. The city itself was only one section of a giant metropolis swarming with people, and a few of his old friends as well.

However, things weren't going to turn out quite the way he had hoped. Even as he sat there on the beach, wearing red swim trunks and his usual speed sneakers, something was wrong high in the sky above him. There, in a plane, sat a young seventeen-year-old kitsune with two tails, carefully guiding his plane across the blue sky. He kept a close watch on his plane's systems as he flew, as this was only a test run, not a real flight. His new Tornado Mk. II was a very powerful plane that used a Chaos Emerald as its power source. However, the engine still had its faults that needed to be worked out, and this boy was aware of this. Still, he figured that a test run would help him pinpoint where the weak points lied in the engine, so he had flown out away from his workshop, and gone way further than he had planned.

Then, the trouble occurred. As his engine ran off of the energy of the Chaos Emerald within, it suddenly began overloading. The boy said, "Oh boy, that's not good!"

He began trying to vent the excess energy, but the vents that were supposed to let the excess flow out didn't open. His plane began to smoke as the engine caught fire and he began losing control of his plane. He let out a scream as it began going down towards the beach below. He called, "Mayday! Mayday! Someone help!!"

Back down on the ground, Sonic heard the call, and looked up at the plane. He gasped when he saw who the pilot was and the condition of the plane. He called, "Tails! Pull up! You're going to crash!"

It flew right by him and skidded to a stop along the beach. Sonic ran over to make sure his good friend was okay, and found him stumble out of the wreckage, seeming very dazed and jarred. "Hey, Tails, are you alright?!" Sonic asked worriedly.

Tails shook his head to clear his vision, and when he saw Sonic, he said, "Oh, Sonic! Sorry about the close fly-by! I just lost control of my plane there!"

Sonic asked, "What happened? You're too good of a pilot to just lose control like that!"

Tails replied, "Yeah, I know, but I was testing out a new engine that ran off of a different power supply and went further than planned."

Sonic was somewhat surprised by how much his friend had changed. Instead of the young, ten-year-old kid that he had been adventuring with for a while seven years ago, now he was almost a man, with a much deeper voice than before, and definitely a bigger build. He now wore a black leather jacket with a green T-shirt underneath, a leather pilot's helmet, and very sturdy, leather pants complete with black and gray tennis shoes. Sonic figured in his head that he definitely looked like a true mechanic now. Then, Tails stood up from his plane and said, "Hey, check out my new power supply!"

He held it up, and Sonic gasped. "No way! A Chaos Emerald?!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

There, in the kitsune's gloved hands, sat a large purple gem that was perfectly cut and radiated with power. It was Chaos Emerald, one of seven gems of unimaginable power. With just one, a person could easily power a massive reactor or power a jet to the point where it could easily pass the sound barrier and go faster yet. With more, a whole metropolis could virtually run off of them indefinitely. However, with all seven, the user gained ultimate power, being able to make anything, including themselves, extremely powerful and invulnerable for up to thirty minutes. Also, if the person had all seven, a doomsday machine or an artificial paradise could be run easily. Sonic had only managed to gather all seven three times in the past, and that was with some extreme difficulty. Now, in front of him, sat one of the seven already.

He asked, "Where did you find it, Tails?"

Tails replied, "I found it while I was wandering around in the jungle in the Mystic Ruins, just lying on the ground for me to pick up. Hey, Sonic, want to come to my workshop? I think we'll have to get someone to move this back to my workshop, but we can do call someone to do that at the train station."

Sonic gladly said, "Sure! It's been a while since we've hung out together."

Tails said, "Yeah, it has. Well, let's go! Follow me, and I'll show which train it is."

Sonic followed Tails to the train station, and along the way, they went to the hotel that Sonic was staying at for his long vacation. As they walked in, Sonic's eye caught a glimpse of a beautiful purple cat girl in the pool right outside the hotel, talking with some of the other girls in the pool. Right as he turned away, he saw her look right at him out of the corner of his left eye, and thought, _Wow...she's like an angel...I wish_.

They walked in, and Sonic took some time to get fully clothed before going with Tails again. He stepped back out, his shades still on, and now he had a black, biker jacket with no shirt underneath, and ragged biker jeans. Tails asked, "What's up with the biker look?"

Sonic replied, "I'll admit, I wasn't thinking about wearing these before, but Amy pushed me to do it, saying that it was the newest in fashion. I finally decided to do it just to shut her up about it."

Tails grinned and said, "That's typical when it comes to you and her. Well, I have to admit that you do look really cool in that."

Sonic said, "Thanks, bud! So, are we going to get going or what?"

Tails said, "K, follow me!"

They began to leave the hotel, and as they walked outside, Sonic took in the sight for just a moment. They now stood in a large space, with multiple building near them. The main ones were the hotel, Twinkle Park, an office building, and the train station. The train station stood out the most out of all of the buildings there at the moment. Tails said, "Alright, let's go. I'll call an old friend of mine to help move the plane back to my workshop from the station."

Sonic said, "You've said that already."

Tails said, "Making sure you know, because sometimes you have a tendency to not be paying attention."

"Well, excuse me!" Sonic exclaimed, offended by the comment, "I happen to pay attention to everything you say, bud, and I haven't forgotten a bit of what you've said so far!"

Tails said, "Alright, so you've changed a bit. At least you pay more attention to me than you a while back."

Sonic sighed as he remembered all about that and the arguments it started at points, and said, "Yeah, I'm sorry about all that. I'll try to make it up to you sometime..."

His voice trailed off as he saw the purple cat girl again. This time, she was also in a biker outfit, but she had her jacket slightly open, partially revealing the bra underneath. Sonic thought, _I didn't think that it was also something of fashion for the women, too, unless she's a tomboy._

Tails asked, "Well, are you coming or...whoa! Watch it, Sonic!"

A group of bikers came driving up to Sonic, seeming as if they were going to run him over. Thinking quickly, Sonic leaped into action. Instead of just dashing aside, he spun into a ball and sped into them, knocking them off of their motorbikes. The motorbikes flew in different directions, as did their riders. The riders stood up and looked at him in surprise, as if they hadn't been expecting him to do that. He saw the cat girl look in that direction in surprise and shock, but for now he focused on the riders. He asked "What's the big idea, guys?! Were you even watching where you were going?!"

One of them replied, "Yeah, we were, but you got in our way, dude! You can't just do that!"

Sonic yelled, "You were heading right for me! What do you mean I got in your way?!"

Tails said, "Hey, I know you guys!"

They looked over at him, and one of them said, "Oh great...not you again!"

Sonic said, "Yeah, him again! Now, if you guys don't clear out, we're going to have to give you a serious lesson. You got me?"

One of them looked over at him and asked, "What does it matter to you, you spikey-quilled freak?"

Sonic looked at him and asked, "What did you just call me?"

By this point, the purple cat girl was getting closer to where they were standing, unaware of who Sonic was right at that moment, and determined to keep a major fight from starting. She said, "All of you, back off!"

The leader of the three bikers turned to look at her, and just smiled. He said, "You're quite the daring one to be talking smack like that to us."

Sonic said, "You're the ones talking smack, buster! She's just trying to get you to learn your place, idiots!"

Tails said, "If you don't back off, I will defend my friend from you."

Sonic said, "Don't worry about them, Tails. I can handle them."

"Big talker for one who doesn't even have a motorbike to ride," said one of the more silent ones.

Sonic said, "I don't need a motorbike."

The cat girl seemed surprised, and asked, "Then...why do are you wearing that outfit? I mean, I only wear them when I'm biking, like I was going to be pretty soon..."

Sonic grinned and asked, "Do you guys even know who I am?"

Suddenly, one of them threw a knife at Sonic. The cat girl shouted, "Look out!"

It all happened in an instant, the blade stopped, but it never hit Sonic. Instead, he caught it, and calmly said, "You just picked a fight you can't win."

Suddenly, he zipped up to one of them and delivered a powerful uppercut, sending that one into the air. He landed, knocked out cold. One of the other ones pulled out a knife and charged at Sonic. Sonic just kicked him in the stomach extremely hard and knocked him out, and then he turned to face the last one. Both Tails and the cat girl stayed back, watching him. Tails just smiled, while the cat girl was shocked. The biker stared in horror, and asked, "Who are you?"

Sonic replied, "You should have asked that earlier. I'm none other than Sonic the Hedgehog!"

The biker now stood before him, staring in despair. Tails then grabbed him by the back of the neck and said, "Alright, start talking! Who sent you?"

The grip he held was very tight, and the biker could not break free. He cried, "Let me go! I wasn't in this group anyways!"

Sonic walked up and asked, "Would you like to prove it?"

The biker took one look at him, and then he said, "Alright, alright! I was sent here by...a large man, bald, brown spiky mustache, purple glasses...I think he was also shaped somewhat like an egg."

The name instantly occurred to Sonic, and he whispered, "Eggman..."

Tails ask, "Sonic, what do you think about that?"

Sonic replied, "I don't know, but I think Dr. Robotnik is back at it."

"You're really Sonic? The famous Sonic the Hedgehog?" Sonic heard a voice ask. He turned around slowly to see the cat girl standing there. Her jacket still revealed part of her chest, though she had the bra there, and she had purple fur all the way down. She wasn't just pretty, she was gorgeous. Never before had he seen any other girl as beautiful as this cat girl. Her voice, the way she had asked if he really was Sonic, it was like a song in his mind.

Remembering where he was, he quickly replied, "Yep! That's me! And might I do for you, miss...?"

"Blaze," she replied, "I was just...astounded at how quickly you took out those criminals."

Sonic turned to the biker and asked, "Criminal? Were you in this for money?"

The biker nodded, fear still in his eyes. He turned to Blaze and asked, "Do you know anything about them? For example, if they're in a bigger gang than just these three? And what do they do?"

Blaze said, "I'll come with you to...wherever you two are going. I'll explain along the way."

Something told Sonic that this had an alternative meaning to it. He quickly concluded that she probably liked him, and this was a way of getting to know more about him. However, he decided that it would be alright. He said, "Alright, you can come along, though we're going to the Mystic Ruins."

Blaze said, "Good! That means I can take down two birds with one stone. As it turns out, I have business of my own to take care of there."

Tails said, "Alright, then come along. Both me and Sonic could greatly benefit from what you can tell us about these people."

Sonic then added, "And maybe, to repay you for the info, we could help you with whatever business you need to take care of over there."

Blaze smiled and said, "It sounds like a deal!"

Sonic was practically being hypnotized by her charm at this point, but he could still think straight about what he was doing. They went onto the train and intentionally sat farther away from most of the other passengers. Then, Sonic said, "Alright, tell us everything that you know about this gang of people."

_**End of first chapter. I will introduce all of the characters before actually moving on with the plot. Expect one of the evil or good characters that aren't so good (in other words, Shadow) to appear in the next chapter! See you then.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Then the eyes ease open and it's dark again...

_**Okay, so in the past, I've had some confusion rolling around about this story. Some of the people who admire my work think that this is my sequel to another one that I made, and are wondering what I was thinking when I made it. Well, this is NOT a sequel! It is a completely different story, so just keep that in mind...thank you for taking your time to read this.**_

Shadow found himself in a dark room, darker than he had ever seen. It was pitch black, and he could not see anything besides the green liquid that was now down to his waist and slowly draining because of a light in his containment capsule. Then, it opened up, and he hopped out. As everything began to come into focus, he could discern several shapes in front of him. A door on one end was barely visible, along with several other containment capsules. One of them was active, and it held a Metal Sonic inside of it. Then, the last figure that he could make out...was a woman. As he concentrated his vision, he could see that it was a bat girl, tall and slim. She wore a black, covert-ops suit that completely covered her except for her head. She stood there on the ground, as if watching him carefully. He felt her piercing gaze watching his every move.

"Who are you?" he called to her. She stiffened, realizing that she had been seen. _Nervous...that may work to my advantage if I need to attack, _he thought.

Then, the bat girl replied, "I am Rouge, a spy sent her to liberate you from your prison. I must say, I wasn't expecting you to see me."

Shadow smiled and said, "My senses are sharper than anyone's. I can see perfectly in the dark, I can hear almost anything, my sense of smell is-"

"Alright, I get it, you're the ultimate life-form," Rouge said, interrupting him. Shadow was surprised that she even knew that about him.

"How did you know that I was the ultimate life-form?" he asked. Something about her struck him as suspicious, causing him to be more cautious. He tensed as he waited for her reply.

"G.U.N had some secret files on you that I dug through before I found you. That's why I knew that you were the ultimate life-form. I read up on all of your innate abilities, that is, the ones that G.U.N knew of," Rouge replied. She seemed a little disappointed when she told him that G.U.N didn't know all of his abilities. Shadow was actually relieved to heart that she didn't know everything about him.

He asked, "So...what happens now? You're liberating me, correct?"

Rouge said, "First, I thought I might free this Metal Sonic that they found. They've been studying it as well as you, but unlike you, it was easier to find out how it worked."

Shadow smirked and said, "How I love being organic instead of machine."

Rouge pressed a small button on the side of the capsule, and Shadow watched as the green liquid drained from the capsule and went to an unknown source. Then, the capsule opened, and the Metal Sonic activated. The first thing it saw was Shadow, and almost immediately, it seemed to make a connection. It mechanically said, "Shadow the Hedgehog, ultimate life-form, has been found. I am here to liberate you."

Shadow asked, "Isn't it a little...too late for that?"

For a moment, both were silent. Then, the Metal Sonic looked at Rouge, who just waved at it. It said, "Oh, okay. I thought for a moment that I was still on my mission, but apparently, I was shut down and put in here."

Shadow said, "Well, now is our chance to get out of here and show G.U.N who's boss."

Rouge said, "First, before you two go dashing off in some random direction, I thought you might like a random piece of information, or a warning of sorts."

Shadow asked, "What is it?"

Rouge said, "There's this gang going around that has all of their members dress as random people or thugs. The most recent addition is people who dress as bikers, if you know what that looks like."

Shadow thought for a moment, and then stared at his uniform. He was wearing a blue, jean jacket along with black, leather pants. He figured that it didn't make him look quite like a biker, but he knew what they looked like nowadays. The Metal Sonic asked, "Do you, Shadow?"

Shadow replied, "Yeah, I have a pretty good idea of what they look like, but who cares about them? If they come and try to mug me, I'll beat the crap out of them."

Rouge said, "I'm sure that you are capable of doing that, but I'm just saying that you should be somewhat careful while you're up there."

Shadow said, "Don't tell me what to do."

He turned and began walking towards the door. Right as he reached it, however, he saw it begin to open. Thinking quickly, he darted into the shadows as the door opened, and watched as the figure on the other side stepped in. It was a tall man, with a red coat on and black pants that perfectly matched his boots. He was bald, had a thick, spiky, brown mustache, purple glasses, and an egg-shaped body. The figure struck Shadow as extremely familiar, but he couldn't quite guess who the person was. Then, the person turned right towards him and said, "So, you're the legendary ultimate life-form that my grandfather created. Well, you don't look like you're that big of a deal."

Shadow, knowing that he had been seen, asked, "Aren't you Ivo Robotnik?"

The man smiled and said, "That is my name. Ivo Julius Robotnik. Now, might I ask how you got free?"

Shadow replied, "Let's just say that I got a little bit of...unexpected help."

He motioned towards where the Metal Sonic and Rouge had been, but they had moved into the darkness. Eggman, however, saw them as well, and said, "Well, if it isn't Rouge the Bat! I was wondering why you hadn't been trying to steal my precious jewels for some time..."

Shadow asked, "Now, Ivo, why are you here in the first place?"

Robotnik replied, "Well, you see, I came here to get you out of here and ask for your help, but it appears that someone else beat me to the punch!"

Rouge said, "You should have moved a little faster, idiot!"

Robotnik said, "You would call me, the greatest scientific genius in the world, an idiot! Ha! I don't even think you know who you're messing with right at this moment!"

Rouge retorted, "I know enough about you to say that you're a total failure."

Shadow asked, "I wonder why you think that?"

Rouge replied, "Look, he's made some very impressive attempts at taking over the world, I'll give him that. However, he has always failed due to one person. He just fights this one person and always loses. There has never been a time where he has won."

Robotnik called, "This time, it will be different! I will defeat that blasted hedgehog once and for all!"

Shadow asked, "Who is this...hedgehog that you're having troubles with?"

Robotnik replied, "His name is Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog! He's blue and fast! That's pretty much all that you need to know about him."

Shadow said, "Hmph. He's probably not as good as me. If I meet him, I'll give you his regards."

Robotnik asked, "Wait, where are you going, Shadow?"

Shadow just walked out the door, not even replying. He was contemplating what he was going to do next as he walked out. His memories of Maria, a friend of his for a long time back when he was still on space colony ARK, kept flashing through his head. He kept wondering what he should do now that he was free from the restraints he had back on ARK. Perhaps he would go searching for the Chaos Emeralds? Or maybe he would go and find a good place to be alone with his thoughts. Finally, he decided that he would just find somewhere to be alone with his thoughts and began running out of the base that he was in. He didn't pay attention to anything, he just ran, or rather he skated. His shoes, unlike most, had air jets built into them, allowing him the ease of skating along anywhere he wished. It was a difficult skill for anyone to master, but he was born with the ability to do it effortlessly. It had been with him since the day he had been finished. He was Project Shadow: The Ultimate Life-form.

Just as he reached the outside of the base, he found himself in a jungle of sorts. Moss grew upwards along the walls of the base and the rest of it seemed very rusty. He figured that the base hadn't been used for years, and then wondered why they had just left him there. He didn't have much time to think, however, for soon, he picked up movement among the trees. As he tracked it, he could tell that, whoever the person or creature was, it was camouflaged. However, it wasn't good enough to hide from his sharp eyes. As he watched it with his eyes only, it began to come into view. He recognized that it was a chameleon, and he was nearly one with the forest. Right as the person stepped into really good view, Shadow asked, "Is there any particular reason why you're trying to sneak up on me?"

The person stopped dead in his tracks and Shadow turned to face him. The chameleon replied, in a very deep voice, "I thought that you were just someone trying to sneak in to steal whatever valuable were inside, so I was going to stop you."

Shadow chuckled and said, "Me? Go in? I don't think so. I was just leaving when you decided to show up. Now, I would advise you leave before I do anything to you."

The chameleon asked, "Is that a threat?"

Shadow glared at him and asked, "What do you think?"

The chameleon said, "I don't take kindly to being threatened."

Shadow said, "You know, I don't care. You will either leave me in peace, or I will kill you."

"Look who's talking big to one of us!" he heard a loud voice say behind him. He turned to see a giant alligator walk up, wearing jungle camo.

Shadow said, "I don't have time for the likes of you two."

"Yeah? Well if you've got enough time to threaten us, then you've got more than enough time to start fighting," the chameleon said.

Shadow sighed and asked, "Are you all like this?"

Then, summoning up nearby chaos energy, he suddenly shouted, "Chaos Control!"

He vanished in a flash of light, and the two other people began freaking out about what he just did. Shadow reappeared a little ways away and just chuckled to himself. He muttered, "What fools they were. Bah, I don't have time for the likes of them. Right now, I just want to figure what I'm going to do, and soon."

Then, he heard a train go overhead, and as he looked up, he sensed Chaos energy inside the train. He grinned and said, "I think I'm going to get my first Chaos Emerald very soon."

_**That introduced Shadow into the fold. Next chapter, we're heading back to Sonic and his group to find out just what is happening with the bikers and all. I hope that you are still sticking with me on this...**_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: The bikers. A close call and a new friendship.

"When I first heard of the group, I had just heard rumors that they had been going around inside Central City, carrying out hit-and-runs, bank robberies, and other somewhat small time crimes. I wasn't too worried, as most were being caught," Blaze explained to Sonic and Tails. Sonic and Tails were both listening intently.

Sonic asked, "So, how did they become this much of a threat?"

Blaze explained, "Soon, however, they were doing more than just that. They began pulling off assassination attempts, killing a few ambassadors and high level CEO's and the like. What was worse, they were never caught. Now, they've been choosing targets and sending out professional hit-men to deal with them swiftly. They claim they're doing the world a favor, ridding us of corrupt bureaucrats and other corrupt politicians that could ruin the economy and the government. They've even taken out some top military commanders."

Tails commented, "I was almost the victim of one of their attempts. I managed to avoid it by waking up right around the time they came in. I guess I was just very lucky to avoid being killed by them."

Blaze asked, "Did they really try to kill you?"

Tails replied, "Yeah, they did. However, I woke up around five, the time when they were going to strike, and left the room to get dressed. I walked back in with full clothes on and found them searching my room. That's when I fight ensued and I ended up chasing them out of my house."

Sonic said, "And we all know that they tried to kill me, though they didn't know who I was. Eggman must have been real quiet about my name, hoping that they would try to kill me without thinking about who I was before they did it."

Blaze smiled and said, "You are the famed Sonic the Hedgehog. I don't know a single person who doesn't know the name."

Sonic said, "I'm just too well known for my own good, I think."

Tails asked, "So, why do they dress as bikers in particular?"

Blaze replied, "That's part of their disguises. You see, wherever they go, they have a certain code for how they dress to mix in. If it is during an election or something, then they mingle in with the crowd with formal suits and the like. If it's out on the streets, then they dress as forms of gangsters or, in this case, bikers. If they have to take a commander, they act as a soldier. The list goes on, and I'm not sure how strict their code is. To know, I would have to be part of their group."

Tails said, "That would make it kind of hard to be trying to tell us about it."

Sonic asked, "So, then why are you wearing a biker uniform? Are you doing it to try and act as one of them to get info?"

Blaze shook her head and replied, "No, it was an outfit that I had been wanting to try for a while, though now that you mention it, it would help me figure what they're up to if I act like I'm one of them out on the streets."

Tails said, "Unless they're really organized, I doubt that you would have much trouble."

Blaze asked, "Are you doing the same as I am, Sonic?"

Sonic figured that she was asking about his uniform, and he said, "No, I'm not. This girl who tried to be my girlfriend actually got me to wear it, saying it was the newest in fashion."

Blaze suggested, "Perhaps she saw all of the other people going around with those uniforms and figured that it had to be. However, that outfit is not the latest in fashion. I would know, since I keep up with times with both genders."

Tails asked, "What job do you have?"

Blaze replied, "Actually, I'm an undercover agent, working for the government to look into this problem."

Sonic said, "Cool."

Tails glanced out the window and noticed that they were now going above the jungles of the Mystic Ruins. A PA on the train announced, "We will be arriving at the station in the Mystic Ruins shortly. Please prepare yourselves for your departure."

Sonic asked, "So, what do you have to do here?"

Blaze replied, "I have to head into the jungle to investigate some strange sightings by explorers there. They see they've been seeing ghosts at night, with glowing blue eyes."

Sonic said, "Hmm...glowing blue....I think I might know what the problem is."

Blaze asked, "Do you know what might be causing it?"

Sonic replied, "Robots."

Tails said, "Sonic, we should be getting ready. The trains going to stop very soon and we need to get off here."

Sonic said, "Tails, we don't really have any luggage to bring. Oh, by the way, did you even remember to call?"

Tails thought for a moment, and then said, "Oh drat! After that whole incident near the train station, I forgot to do it!"

Sonic asked, "Do you have a phone at your workshop?"

Tails replied, "Yeah, but it'll cost me some money to make the long distance call. Oh well, I can live with that."

The train stopped and they departed. Blaze asked, "Are you really sure about helping me out, Sonic?"

Sonic replied, "Yeah! I never have a problem with helping anyone, except the bad guys."

"Alright, then follow me," she said, smiling.

Sonic turned to Tails and said, "You be careful heading over there, alright?"

Tails replied, "Sure thing, Sonic!"

Tails ran off towards his workshop, which was set up on top of a high hill. There were stairs leading up to it, and wide area in front of the workshop itself to test certain inventions that he had. Sonic began to wonder how Tails found this in the first place. Then, Blaze said, "Come on! This way!"

She began leading him to a mine cart that led into the jungle, and Sonic commented, "It's been a while since I've been put into a mine cart before. This should be fun."

Blaze said, "It's not dangerous or anything, so don't worry about being hurt or anything."

They hopped into the mine cart and began heading towards the jungle. As it rode on, Sonic asked, "How long have you been working as an agent?"

Blaze replied "Three years."

Sonic grinned and said, "Nice. You must have a lot of field experience."

Blaze replied, "Eh...not really. I was never out in the field for the first two years."

Sonic seemed surprised, and then asked, "What were you doing, then?"

Blaze replied, "I was just an analyst."

Sonic was somewhat confused, but then he saw something coming up that needed a bit more attention than what they were talking about. They were coming up to a two-way path, and Blaze said, "Alright, we'll be taking the left path and heading into the jungle. There, we can figure out what they're seeing and deal with it."

Sonic, however, noticed that something wasn't quite right. He asked, "What would happen if we went right?"

Blaze replied, "Well, we'd be heading into a cave with a broken mine cart track."

Sonic gulped and said, "Blaze, from the way I see it turned, we aren't heading left."

Blaze looked and asked, "What do you mean?"

Then, her eyes widened and she whispered, "Oh my god..."

As it turned to the right, Sonic asked, "Are there any jumps?"

Blaze was silent, fearing that they had been led into a trap that would cost them their lives. Sonic said, "I'll take that as a yes..."

"Sonic, we're not going to make it out...the final jump was supposed to be too large to make!" Blaze exclaimed.

Sonic said, "We're going to make it out. I'm sure that we will."

Then, they entered a large cave, and Sonic looked at the path going downward, and he thought, _This is too conveniently like a roller coaster to be real._

Then, the ride began. Blaze and Sonic began letting out small yells from the sudden thrill of the ride. Blaze was scared, and thought that they were most likely going to die. Sonic, on the other hand, was enjoying it and treating it more like a true roller coaster ride. The first jump came, and Sonic felt the exhilaration at its max. The faster the cart got, the more exciting the ride got for him. He could see that Blaze was scared because of what she knew was coming, but Sonic felt confident that they would make it out okay. He knew what he was going to do, providing that the jump was too big for the mine cart alone to make it. Then, it came. The jump that was supposed to be so big that the mine cart couldn't even make it. And now, Sonic was beginning to have doubts about making it as well. Blaze was whimpering slightly out of fear, and he asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Blaze said, "Even I wouldn't be able to make it this! Not even if I jumped out of the cart!"

Sonic figured that, since she was a feline, she could jump very high. He, on the other hand, could easily use his speed to dash in the air a great length forward, but not that far forward. Then, he had an idea. He said, "You and I are going to have to work together to get out of this! You have us jump as high as you can, and I will propel us forward with my speed!"

Blaze looked at him like he was crazy, but then saw the logic in it, and said, "Alright, we'll try it!"

As the mine cart neared the end of the line, Sonic and Blaze both grabbed onto each other, a feeling that made both of them a little nervous. However, Sonic knew that this was going to be their only ticket out. He said, "At the count of three, Blaze!"

Then, he started it. "Three...two...one...NOW!" he shouted. At that moment, a flame shot underneath them and launched them upward as she jumped. Then, using his speed in a kick, he carried them forward faster than their own momentum would normally have allowed. Sonic's foot barely touched the edge, and he carried both himself and Blaze onto the track. He ran down it, and went into a pitch black passage. He was aware of Blaze's grip on him tightening as he ran, as she was afraid that they might slam into something as he ran. Then, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and ran straight for it. He counted in his mind, and then stopped right at the end of the tunnel and looked down. It was at the edge of a cliff with a one-hundred foot drop all the way down to another section of the jungle.

Sonic set Blaze down and said, "Well, that was quite the adventure."

Blaze smiled and said, "Yes, it was. I thank you for saving my life, Sonic."

Sonic grinned and said, "Hey, don't mention it. It's part of my code to save just about anyone who's in danger."

Blaze smiled and said, "I never thought that I would actually get a chance to meet you, let alone be saved by you. Now, you're my personal hero."

Sonic turned away to hide a slight blush as she said that. He said, "No problem!"

Then, he saw a way that he could scale along the cliff by running, and he asked, "Do you mind being held at heights?"

Blaze asked, "What do you mean?"

Sonic replied, "I can run across here, but to get you across, I would have to carry you."

Blaze smiled and said, "I wouldn't mind, especially since you're the one carrying me."

Again, Sonic blushed, though Blaze couldn't see it since he was turned away. Then, when he was sure it was gone, he said, "Alright, let's go...that is, unless you can run as fast as I can."

Blaze replied, "I could run about as fast, but I could never run along a wall."

She walked over to Sonic and Sonic lifted her up off of her feet. She wrapped her arms around his neck and then commented, "I feel like a princess being rescued from an evil prince."

Sonic said, "Alright, hold on! Here we go!"

He dashed out along the wall and began running along it, holding Blaze in his arms. Her grip tightened as she looked down, but she didn't seem all too afraid. She was very confident that he wouldn't drop her. He ran along the wall, and then was eventually forced to start going down towards the ground. As he ran, he reached a corner and leaped off right on the other side of the wall. He landed on a higher patch of the jungle, far above the rest. He set her down and said, "Well, now that we've arrived at our destination, lets look around for the explorers."

They wandered into the jungle, and immediately found an explorer inside. He ran to them and said, "Oh, thank goodness you came when you did!"

He was spooked, and Blaze asked, "What's wrong?"

The man replied, "It was horrible! T-This creature came out...and it attacked us! There was nothing we could do to stop it!"

Sonic was suddenly tense and asked, "Where are the rest of your team?"

The man said, "I'm afraid you're too late to save us, Sonic. The rest of my team...is dead."

_**Don't know if this is the best place to end it, but I choose it for now. Well, I hope that you all are enjoying this so far! This is the last chapter that I will post, and then I will post another one on my Zelda fan fic. See you all later!**_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Ultimate Life-Form's Revelation

Tails wandered up to his workshop and sighed heavily. He said, "I wish I had remembered to call him about the plane back at the station...I might be too late to retrieve it now."

His workshop, a large building that he made and designed himself and embedded into the hill. He walked in through the front door, made out of metal, and walked into a small living room where he kept some of his other technology, including a bunch of video games and video game systems. He had all of them, ranging from the old Atari to the newest PS3, and he was proud to own them all. He had almost every single game that had came out for those systems, bad ones along with good ones. And, he also had a wide-screen, HDTV. He had all of the games that he was using in stacks along the TV, while all of the others were packed into a closet, probably never to be played again unless Tails found time to dig them back out.

He went to his phone and dialed a number. Then, a gruff voice on the other end asked, "Yes?"

Tails said, "Miles here. I need a bit of help."

The man said, "Hey, Tails! How's it going?"

Tails said, "It's going great, but right now, I need your help."

The man asked, "What's going on over there, Tails?"

Tails said, "It's my plane. You see, I made another version of my Tornado to run off of a different power source, and I was test running it when it suddenly died on me. Think you can help me out a bit?"

For a moment, there was just silence, except for chattering on the other side. Then, the man replied, "Alright, just tell me where it is and I'll have some of my men get it and move it back to you."

Tails said, "It's in on the coast of Station Square."

The man said, "Alright, we'll get it back for you...for a price, of course."

Tails said, "Alright, thanks. I'll pay you when you get it back. Bye."

He hung up and let out a deep, discontented sigh. Of all the times to ruin a perfect test run and have to pay for people to move it back, now was not the best of times for him to be having to do that. He was running low on money, as he had not had a chance to sell any new inventions in a while...and someone had swindled him out of a major deal a while back, leaving him nearly broke. It was all he could do to keep himself from running out of money to keep himself in business with the stuff that he manufactured.

Then, he saw someone walking up to his door from outside. It was a black and red hedgehog, and he seemed very determined to get something...which bugged Tails. Something about the way he walked towards his house wasn't quite right. Tails thought, _Maybe he's here to buy something?_

The next moment, there was a knock on the door. Tails walked over and opened, and the moment he opened it, a fist flew upward and hit him in the chin, knocking him back towards a wall. The hedgehog said, "Alright, boy. Hand over the Chaos Emerald and I won't have to kill you."

_How does he know about it? _Tails wondered. The hedgehog repeated his statement, now a little louder than before. Just then, Tails swiped his two tails around and slammed the hedgehog alongside the head, knocking him away. The hedgehog instinctively let go, and fell away from Tails, clutching his head. Tails kicked at his face as hard as he could, sending him flying into another room. Tail walked after him, hoping that he was stunned.

He walked in, and amazingly, the hedgehog had already recovered from a blow that would normally have seriously injured him. Tails was shocked, and the hedgehog asked, "What's the matter, fox boy? You seem...amazed that the ultimate life-form would be able to survive an attack like that."

Tails' eyes widened as he asked, "The ultimate life-form?"

The hedgehog grinned and said, "Right, the ultimate life-form. You've heard of me, haven't you?"

Tails asked, "Weren't you the project that G.U.N was studying and keeping top secret? The project that they shut down ARK because of?"

The hedgehog replied, "I am Shadow, the same Shadow that was captured by G.U.N, that witnessed Maria's death, and now has come back for...revenge."

The way he said "revenge" dripped with anger as he remembered everything that G.U.N had done to him. Tails looked at him and asked, "Why were you after me, then? I'm not G.U.N."

Shadow replied, "Oh, but that's the thing. You see, none of the other people down here cared about what happened up on ARK. They just brushed it off like it was nothing, and these people here are going to suffer for even daring to let these events take place."

Tails asked, "That means you're going to kill anyone and everyone? Just because they "let" this happen?! You're crazy!"

Shadow asked, "Are you afraid of me, boy?"

Tails noticed that, somehow, his Chaos Emerald was gone, but he did his best to hide his surprise. Then, he noticed Shadow holding it in his hands. He said, "It's quite easy to steal something from someone without them noticing when you have their attention on something else."

Tails said, "So I've noticed..."

Shadow asked, "How old are you?"

Tails replied, "I'm seventeen. The ARK incident happened over fifty years ago. I had no idea about what was going on."

Shadow asked, "So, you learned it from history then, correct?"

Tails just nodded in reply. He was still trying to sort out how Shadow still being alive was possible, and whether or not it was a good thing. Shadow began to think, and then asked, "Has it really been fifty years since ARK was shut down?"

Tails replied, "Yes, it has. How long had you thought it had been?"

Shadow now began backing off a little bit, and then said, "Alright, if it really has been fifty years, I'll let you and everyone else live. They don't deserve to die. However, if you want your Chaos Emerald back, make me a deal."

Tails asked, "What deal do you want to make?"

Shadow grinned and said, "Help me destroy G.U.N."

Tails was shocked and impulsively yelled, "Are you crazy?!"

Shadow replied, "No, I'm not. Fox boy, look at what G.U.N has done for the past fifty years...and tell me what you find."

Tails walked over to a computer he had set up in his garage, accessed the Internet, and looked for news about G.U.N's doings over the past years. To his surprise, much of what he actually found the majority saying was completely contradictory to what he had been seeing on the media. The media had made them sound good because it got them money. However, looking up what the majority said about it, he was shocked to find that no one really liked G.U.N. In fact, a few people even wanted to have the government get rid of them forever, but the government wasn't about to do that because they claimed it was necessary to have G.U.N around. People also questioned G.U.N's true intentions.

"Now do you see, fox boy? Everything that G.U.N has done over these past years has been nothing but bad. They're a corrupt group of people, and the only reason the government hasn't gotten rid of them is because they made a mistake of giving the unit of military far too much power. Now, it's almost like they're a completely different nation. Nothing that they do has any good in it. They are constantly driving towards a goal, and that goal is to gain control of the nation of Mobius, no, the whole world of Earth!" Shadow explained.

As Tails turned to him with a new understanding and strange trust for this hedgehog, Shadow asked, "Do you really want this to continue, fox boy?"

Tails hesitated a moment, and then replied, "No..."

Shadow said, "Then help me take them out. They have to be dealt with before they manage to do something truly horrible. Everyone knows that, but only a few have the power to do so. From what I've seen so far, you're personal combat skills are fairly good. Not the best, but very good nonetheless. Also, I noticed that you have quite a talent for making machinery, unless none of this is yours..."

Tails replied, "It's all mine. I constructed this place myself."

Shadow grinned and said, "That's pretty amazing. You have a name?"

Tails replied, "Miles "Tails" Prower. Everyone refers to me as Tails."

Shadow said, "Alright, Tails. Listen closely now. We never met, alright?"

He handed the Chaos Emerald back to him and said, "Keep this in mind. I'll see if I can find other people to incorporate to my cause, and then I'll see if we can arrange a meeting on how we'll deal with G.U.N."

Tails replied, "Alright, not a word, Shadow."

Shadow said, "I'll leave you in peace for now. Now, I have to go and pay a certain doctor a visit."

Shadow left his house, and Tails just stood there, watching his front door. Something told him that this wasn't the right thing to do, but something else, his inner conscious, told him otherwise. He decided that he would take Shadow at his word, though he had no idea where it was going to take him. He looked at the door and said, "The first order of business it to clean up any signs that there was even a battle here..."

_**Yep, G.U.N's the big bad guy here. Eggman is going to be a major threat as well, but he is, as he started becoming in the later games, more of a minor threat than the one currently at hand. Next, we'll be introducing more characters, so stay tuned! (Hint: If you want to know when I update, just put this story on your story alert. It's easier than to keep checking on it for when I update!)**_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: A rip-off deal

"What do you mean the deal's off?!" the crocodile shouted at the top of his lungs over the phone. His client, a G.U.N military commander, had offered them a huge sum of money for detaining the ultimate life-form, a task that the crocodile would readily undertake. Now, he had just learned that he was on a time limit and he was overdue, when the commander had never said anything of the sort before.

"To be plain, you should have listened to what I had to say before you hung up," the man on the other side of the phone replied. He was overly calm for talking to such an enraged person.

The crocodile screamed, "You hung up before I did, bastard!"

"No, I'm quite sure that you hung up before that. Now, I have other clients waiting to be hired, and I must get to them shortly. The deal is off," the man said again. The calmness in his voice was extremely aggravating the crocodile.

"You son of a-" the crocodile was saying right as the man on the other side hung up. The crocodile slammed the phone down and began muttering curses in his anger.

A chameleon near some lockers in the office who was dressed in a ninja outfit asked, "The deal is off, Vector?"

Vector replied, "Yes, and someone is going to have a high price to pay for it, too!"

The chameleon said, "I don't think you can just sue G.U.N. From what I've seen, every attempt has failed."

Vector sighed and said, "Yeah, it's true, Espio. After a little while, I'll bet that they'll start taking over economy and screwing all of us up."

Espio sighed and said, "With people like them on the loose, who needs people to war with? I mean, it's almost like they're a separate nation, which really bugs me."

"This whole thing is screwed up, Espio," Vector said, "It pains me to see people just not doing anything about it, but then, I can hardly blame them. The government made the mistake of giving power to the wrong guy, and now, they're having problems of their own trying to keep G.U.N from gaining too much power. The leader is a power hungry devil!"

Espio said, "I agree with you there. He's always pushing for more power. Eventually, if someone doesn't act, he might just have it all..."

Just then, a bee flew in who was about half Espio's size and wore a light, leather jacket, jeans, and a leather flight cap with goggles. He said, "Guys, I have news!"

Vector turned to the sixteen-year-old bee in amazement, and asked, "Okay, Charmy! What do we have?"

Charmy merely sighed when he heard his name, and Vector corrected himself by saying, "Oh, right! Because of how much you dislike your name, we're calling you Ryan. Alright, Ryan, what's the news?"

Ryan smiled and said, "Thanks. Now, there have been recent reports of this...ultimate life-form going about talking to certain people. Almost always, they report that he has been trying to find people who are capable of helping him with something, and G.U.N speculates that he might be trying to form a band of rebels to deal with them."

Espio, who had his arms folded across his chest, leaned forward in surprise and said, "Say what?! He's actually trying to get people to fight back against them?!"

Vector put his sweat shirt back on and said, "Alright, he sounds like a client to me!"

Ryan stared at him and asked, "What do you mean?"

Vector replied, "Ryan, we got ripped off by G.U.N a few minutes ago. Apparently, we were on a set deadline to get the ultimate life-form, and they never told us. Now, they're looking for more...capable clients to hunt him down."

Vector stood up, revealing the black, gangster styled jeans he had on, as well as athlete shoes. He said, "Let's find this "ultimate life-form" and see what he has to offer!"

Epsio asked, "Are you sure this is a wise idea, boss?"

Vector replied, "Look, Espio, I want to get back at those bastards at G.U.N who ripped us off. I was in a deal for two millions bucks, and then they tell I had a deadline that they never mentioned before! Needless to say, I'm really ticked off at those guys, and I want to get them back for ripping me off of a great deal of dough. You get what I'm saying, you two?"

Ryan said, "Yeah, I do. But, we tried to take this guy out before. He might think we're after him again and try to take us out."

Vector replied, "If he gets violent, so do we. Ready people?"

Espio sighed and said, "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

Ryan said, "Reporting for duty, boss."

Vector smiled and said, "That's the spirit, you two! Let's get ready to rock'n'roll!"

Espio said, "You've got it, boss!"

Vector said, "First things first, we need to start asking around for info on where this ultimate life-form was last spotted. I don't care what people think of us, we're going to do it anyways! We should first question about the people who were interrogated or whatever by this ultimate guy and see what we can conclude from them about where he is."

Espio thought about it a moment, and said, "I think I get what you mean." His boss always had a strange way of explaining things, he thought.

Vector said, "Alright. Team Chaotix, move out!"

_**Another short chapter, but I wanted to get Team Chaotix introduced. Also, I hope that you don't mind me putting Charmy into an older, more sophisticated setting...as I looked at Knuckles Chaotix and that was the way he was. (I hate six-year-old bees, if you can't tell...lol)**_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Deadly fight

"Are you sure we should even be hunting this thing, Sonic?" Blaze asked nervously. After the explorer had told them about the creature that had killed the rest of his research team the night before, Sonic had decided that they were going to get to bottom of that situation and deal with whatever killed them.

Sonic replied, "Blaze, if we don't take it out, it'll kill more people, and we don't want that. Just bear with me, alright?"

It was now nighttime, and the stars shone above them. The full moon hung above them as well, providing enough light for Sonic to sort of see. Blaze easily saw where they were, her eyes seeming to shine in the darkness. Sonic turned to her and commented, "Your eyes...they're beautiful at night."

Although Sonic didn't see it, Blaze smiled and said, "We are cats, and cat's eyes always almost glint in the darkness."

Sonic looked ahead and asked, "Do you see anything, Blaze?"

Blaze scanned ahead, but didn't see anything too far beyond. She said, "I don't see anything. It could be anywhere in this jungle."

Sonic was relying on his hearing, hoping to hear any sign of it approaching. Suddenly, he faintly heard a twig snap somewhere behind them. He spun around, looking in the direction that it came from, and Blaze turned, wondering what he had heard. "What is it?"

Sonic shushed her, and then they stood there, silent as ghosts, watching for this being to appear before them. They waited, standing still, for what felt like hours to Sonic. _I'm not supposed to be going this slow! I'm meant for speed, not stealth!_ he thought. He felt that he was going to have to start fidgeting in order to keep himself somewhat comfortable. Something about Blaze being near him, though, gave him the will power to keep himself perfectly still. He was a perfect statue, standing in the darkness beside Blaze, watching the darkness to see any sign of motion.

Then, something started to appear out of the darkness. Blaze was the first to see it, but said nothing. Then, Sonic saw movement out in the darkness, but couldn't identify what it was. It had glowing blue eyes which Sonic identified as electronic. However, there was something odd about the eyes as well. The figure didn't seem robotic. Instead, it seemed almost living, with the same movements as a person. The person was about Sonic and Blaze's height, and was cautiously moving. It didn't see them, apparently not using night vision as Sonic had began to suspect. It was staring right at them, but didn't see much of anything. As it moved forward, Sonic could identify that it was a figure in armor. The armor, though, was extremely high tech compared to other armor he had seen before, and looked extremely defensive. Sonic let a slight breath just to see if the person would react, and the person turned towards him. Upon seeing nothing but strange silhouettes on the edge of its vision, it turned and walked on past them. When it was fully turned away, Blaze suddenly lashed out.

She tripped it and slammed her foot onto the back of the person's neck, holding the person to the ground. Sonic walked over and said, "Alright, tell us what you're doing here killing people, right now!"

The person replied, "I was on a mission from my master!"

Blaze asked, "Who's your master?"

The person said, "Please, I cannot tell you and expect to keep my life!"

Sonic said, "You'll have better chances of living if you tell us than you will if you don't, because I'm afraid that the penalty for killing is to be killed. Now, if you tell us, I'll just take you to jail."

The person asked, "How will that save me?"

Blaze replied, "You will be held custody, and the authorities will no doubt protect. Unless, they decide that you have committed a capital crime..."

Sonic said, "The chances of that happening are more likely if you don't tell us than if you do!"

The man shuddered and said, "Alright, I'll tell you everything, you spiky maniac!"

Sonic said, "Start by telling us who, if anyone, employed you."

"The master..." the man started, "I don't know his name!"

Sonic was stunned and asked, "How do you not know his name? Surely he must have told you it..."

The man said, "No, he never told anyone that went to him. He just said to do something and, in my case, he offered me my life."

Blaze asked, "Who are all of the others that were there?"

The man replied, "I don't know all of their names, but there were robots, powerfully armed guards, bikers...and an egg-shaped, bald man!"

Sonic started upon hearing those words and shouted, "What?!?"

Blaze asked, "This man...was one of the people taking orders from your master?"

The man replied, "Nay, he was not. However, he is involved with master, and he is helping him with his plans. I don't know what they are planning, as they speak a language that I do not really understand."

Sonic looked at Blaze and asked, ""What do you think?"

Blaze asked, "What does your master look like?"

The man replied, "I cannot tell you. If I do, I will have to pay far more consequences than I already will be paying for!"

Sonic asked, "If you don't talk-"

He was cut short by a flare on the edge of his vision, a gunshot, and a bullet whizzing up to his head. He leaned back, and the man took advantage of that. He stood suddenly, knocking Sonic to the ground. Then, he punched at Blaze, who leaned back and lashed out with her foot, hitting him in the stomach. He backed off, and Sonic bounced upward in a ball, and landed on top of the man with a powerful force. The man was dazed from the blow, and then Sonic landed and punched him in the face. The man staggered back and fell over, dizzy from the force of the blows.

Another gunshot rang out, and this time, Blaze had to dodge a bullet. Sonic caught a glimpse of the bullet in midair and realized that it was no normal bullet. It was silver and lined with energy, and when it hit a tree only a few feet from where Blaze was standing, it exploded into silver shards. Some of the shards embedded themselves into Blaze's shoulder, and she gasped in pain and grasped where the shards had embedded themselves. Thinking quickly, Sonic dove forward and grabbed Blaze right as another gunshot rang out. He dragged Blaze behind the nearest tree, and heard the bullet explode against the other side of the tree. He asked, "What kind of foe are we dealing with?"

Blaze replied, "I don't know, but I'm going to take them out."

Another gunshot rang out, and Sonic saw another silver bullet barely miss the tree and nearly hit the edge of his ear. The person was an extremely precise marksman. Blaze said, "I have an idea. I'll lure him away from us with a bit of my flame abilities while you run up to him and subdue him."

Sonic asked, "Flame?! Since when did you have that?"

Blaze said, "There's no time!"

Sonic saw the gleaming lights move so that the person could get a better shot, and grunted as he leaped away from the spot he was in. Blaze leaped the opposite direction right as a silver bullet flew forward and hit right where Sonic's head would have been. Sonic saw a flame dart out towards the person, and the person dodged to their right, heading straight towards Sonic new hiding place. He leaped out and kicked the person's head down into the ground with extreme precision. The person slid into the brush and didn't move. Sonic had knocked him out cold.

Blaze came out and said, "That was cool."

Sonic said, "Eh, it's all in a days work. I've fought foes that were actually tougher than these."

Blaze commented, "I wonder who they really were..."

Sonic looked around for any more lights, hoping that they weren't going to be ambushed again. Although he would never admit it, he was actually scared that time. The bullets moved faster than normal bullets, making them harder to dodge, and exploded into silver shards which proved to be deadly. He looked at Blaze's bleeding shoulder and asked, "Are you alright?"

Blaze carefully picked out the shards with her teeth, and examined the last one that she picked out. She said, "Good, these aren't poisonous..."

Sonic said, "That's pretty reassuring. Here, you're going to need something to keep that from bleeding out too much."

He ripped part of his T-shirt off and wrapped it around her shoulder tightly. She winced in pain as he applied pressure, but when it was finished, the pain began to die down again. She said, "Thank you for your help, Sonic."

Sonic smiled in the darkness and said, "No problem, Blaze. By the way, where did you get your flame powers?"

Blaze replied, "I was born as a pyrokinetic."

Sonic thought to himself, _In other words, she was born with her flame ablilites._

Blaze asked, "Shall we get going? I have to report back to my boss and get a change of clothes. I would assume that you also need to be doing some other chores."

Sonic shook his head and replied, "Nah, I just have to sleep. I was worn out from the long search."

Blaze said, "Alright, lets go."

They headed back to the train station and went to the rooms below. It had been built as a train station/hotel for visitors and explorers. While Blaze headed to the women's showers, Sonic immediately booked a room and hit the sack. Blaze took the same room because there were two beds in there, and she figured she would stick with Sonic. As she walked in, now dressed in a nightgown, she looked at Sonic, sleeping soundly. She thought, _I must like him a lot more than I thought to be taking the same room as him..._

She laid down on the bed opposite of Sonic's bed and for a while just looked at the ceiling, trying to focus on something to coax herself to sleep. Finally, she found something and whispered, "Good night, Sonic the Hedgehog." She fell sound asleep, not even caring about how loud Sonic's snoring was.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: An innocent girl on the streets

Amy Rose sighed as she waited impatiently for the cashier to finish checking out her groceries for the day. Finally, the tall echidna said, "Alright, that'll be thirty-five, twenty, ma'am."

Amy Rose handed the echidna a forty dollar check, and the echidna handed back her change. She said, "Thank you!"

The echidna smiled and replied, "Any time, ma'am. By the way, you should be careful on the streets. There have been some nasty rumors about the gangs becoming serious threats, especially at night, so I would be careful where I went if I were you."

Amy smiled and said, "Thanks again!"

She picked up her groceries and began walking home, briefly looking at herself in a mirror to make sure that her bright pink hair was done right. It wasn't quite right, she decided, so she undid it and redid it in a ponytail. Then, she walked out, heading back towards her home. Her silver locket gleamed brightly in the moonlight as she walked out, though not many people noticed her. She sighed and thought, _I wonder where Sonic is?_

As she walked into the night, she got the creepy suspicion that she was being watched. She carefully peered around her, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary in the city lights of Station Square. She looked at the time and thought, _If I hurry, I should be able to make it back home by midnight._

She quickened her pace, heading back to her house on the edge of the city, near the beach. As she walked on, she was forced to go through some alleys, and as she did, she felt very insecure and nervous. Something about what the echidna had told her was making her very worried, and she felt like she was being stalked. She kept glancing back, hoping to catch a glimpse of anything that might be following her, but every time she did, there would be nothing. As she got further and further in, something told that she was going the wrong way, and as she stopped to look around her, they struck.

Four men came out and surrounded her. She shrieked and tried to run past them, but one of them grabbed her and pushed towards a wall, asking, "Where do you think you're going, hottie?"

She dared to punch at one, but he caught her fist and said, "Ooh, you're a fiery one, aren't ya?!"

"Let. Her. Go!" someone shouted into the darkness. Amy looked to see the figure of a hedgehog. From where she stood, she could have sworn that it was Sonic.

"Sonic?" she asked.

The figure stepped forward, and one of the gangsters said, "You trying to take her away from us, fool?! You even know who we are?!"

The figure, now much closer than before, said, "I'm not about to let her be hurt by you idiots."

Now, Amy could both hear that his voice wasn't Sonic's, and his figure was somewhat different compared to Sonic's. He wore gloves that had symbols on them that were glowing white blue, and that was about all that she could see about him. He repeated his statement from before, but this time, he made it louder. He clenched one of his fists as he practically yelled in fury. Now, one of the gangsters took a swing at him, and Amy closed her eyes. There was a loud gasp of surprise from everyone else around her, and when Amy looked, she saw the gangster being held in place.

The figure said, "You should have backed off when you had the chance...fools."

He suddenly threw the man back, sending him flying into a wall. Then, he focused and the men around Amy lifted up off of the ground. They twirled in the air for a moment, and then were sent flying into each other. Amy looked on with amazement, and asked, "Who are you?"

The hedgehog replied, "The name's Silver. I'm here on a secret mission."

Amy said, "Thanks for saving me, Silver. I really appreciate it."

Silver smiled and said, "Don't mention it. It's something that I do day to day."

Amy said, "Here, I have something to give...my new hero."

Silver had just turned to head back when Amy said that. He stopped, and asked, "What is it?"

She handed him a little slip of paper and said, "Call me!"

She picked up her groceries, which she had dropped when those men had came up around her, and continued on. Silver asked, "Wait, what's your name?"

Amy turned back and cheerfully called, "Amy Rose! I'll see you sometime soon!"

She turned back, feeling happier than ever before. _So what if it wasn't Sonic? s_he thought, _He still saved me, and besides, I need a new boyfriend anyways. Those tarot cards...they didn't help me with my fortune any._

Amy turned to look back at him, only to find that he was gone. He had mysteriously vanished into the night. She sighed and said to herself, "I'm sure that he'll call sometime soon. I hope he calls tomorrow. That would be great."

She walked on until she reached her house. She looked around for any sign that there might have been a break-in and then unlocked her door and walked inside. She set her groceries on the counter and walked over to her computer. She found that she had an e-mail...from Tails, no less. She quickly read it aloud to herself.

"Amy, there's something I have to tell you. There is urgent business that I need to conduct in the city, but only you, myself, and others are allowed to know about it. I have to get the Chaos Emerald that is here, in Casinopolis, but I need your help. What I need you to do is to go in and play, as normal. However, specifically, I want you to play the Cards Pinball Machine. You'll see why later. Pool whatever money you get after two rounds and bring it to me near the vault."

Amy seemed confused and asked, "Why the casino, and why is he going for the emerald in specific?"

Amy looked at the time, and then noticed that there was a time set for going to the casino. It was set for midnight the next day. She sighed and said, "I guess I'd better have everything ready to look my best when I go there. For now," she sighed as she finisher her sentence to herself, "I have to go to sleep. I hope that Silver calls sometime..."

She walked upstairs, entered her room, and without even changing out of her day clothes, she fell asleep. She dreamed, suddenly, of Silver coming to her home, and the next day, she could not stop thinking about him.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: A shattered Emerald and a new task

As light began to shoot across Angel Island, Knuckles just snored the night away. Even as the faint rays of dawn began to approach, Knuckles just slept on. Then, without warning, something happened. As he leaned his head against the Master Emerald, snoring soundly, he was suddenly knocked forward and rudely awakened. He stood up, wide awake from that sudden jolt, and asked, "Who's there?"

He turned to where the Master Emerald was, and said, "Oh no..."

It was shattered, and only the base was left there. There were two beings standing near it. One was a young girl echidna with orange fur and tribal clothing. Then, there was a creature standing beside her, made of pure water. It had a strange nucleus where the brain would be. Knuckles asked, "Who are you?"

The echidna girl replied, "I am Tikal, one of your tribe that has been sealed away for a very long time."

Knuckles started, and then asked, "How did you become sealed away in the Master Emerald? And who's this watery freak?"

Tikal replied, "This is Chaos, the original guardian of the Master Emerald."

Knuckles heard a voice in his head say, "It is an honor to meet the person who has most recently been guarding this. I have seen you guard it, and you guard it well."

Knuckles asked, "You were watching me the whole time I was a guardian?"

Tikal replied, "That was about all that we could do."

Knuckles asked, "So wait...you're both beings from that past that have basically been trapped in the Master Emerald for millenia and I haven't heard of your existence before? I find that somewhat hard to believe, actually."

"You don't need to believe us if you don't want to, guardian," the voice of Chaos echoed in his mind.

Tikal said, "We would normally have time to chat more if there wasn't something big going on. In fact, there is something that we need to tell you, and we need to tell you now before we leave."

Knuckles noticed that, strangely enough, the island hadn't started falling yet. He began to wonder why, but Chaos telepathically said, "There is an immense danger that grows by the hour, and soon, I fear that it may become unstoppable."

Knuckles asked, "What is this threat, and for another thing, why isn't the island falling?"

Tikal replied, "This threat is from another world and threatens to destroy all life in this world. Also, the island isn't falling because the Master Emerald's power has channeled into the island itself. You no longer need to burden yourself with that task."

Knuckles seemed stunned. "Does this mean I get to go and live a free life wherever I want?" he asked.

"Yes, but for now, you must listen," Chaos said, "There is a group of very powerful people beginning to form under a devious leader. His name is Ixis. He is bent on the destruction of this very world, and will stop at nothing to achieve that goal."

Knuckles asked, "Why is he even trying to destroy the world?"

Tikal replied, "We do not know. However, if we are to stop him, we must find a being called the ultimate life-form and gain his aid. If we can do that and gather all of the Chaos Emeralds, we might yet have a chance."

Knuckles said, "Alright, so I'm leaving Angel Island to go down to Station Square. I think Sonic was supposed to be there right about now."

Chaos told him, "Be careful. These people are hunting you, Sonic, and Tails actively. They will stop at nothing to get you and your friends out of their way."

Knuckles found it strange that they knew the names of his friends, and asked, "How do you know the names of my friends? I thought it was only me you watched."

Tikal explained, "The Master Emerald allowed us to see many events occurring all across the world. That is why we knew about your friends."

Knuckles seemed to believe her and said, "Alright, I'll take you at your word. Anyhow, if this threat really is looming on the horizon, I'd best get moving to find this ultimate life-form...whatever it turns out to be."

He leaped off of the island and stretched his strong body into a glide along the wind. He let the wind start carrying him in the direction of the city, and he saw Tikal and Chaos follow his example. Chaos headed down towards the city, but Tikal had another destination in mind, and Knuckles couldn't keep an eye on her. As he glided down towards the city along with Chaos, he saw that dawn was just beginning to creep up beyond the hills, and he thought, _This is going to be an interesting day._

_**K, so I've officially decided the main couples. SonicXBlaze (wow, what a shocker...), TailsXTikal (ooh, that's a new one), KnucklesXRouge, SilverXAmy, ShadowX...I'll come back to that later...and EspioXOC. This OC, I have actually seen in some works of fan art. K, now you know what couples there are going to be, and it's going to be hard for me to focus on all of them...this is the first time I've really tried focusing on more than one couple.**_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Morning Crisis

Sonic awoke early because of the early morning light, and sat up, blinking. He looked around him as if wondering where he was for a moment, and then he remembered just where he was and stood up out of his bed. He still had his biker outfit on, which was normal for him. He never changed into night clothes before going to bed. As he stood up, he saw the figure of Blaze on the opposite bed and stood there for a few moments, wondering why she was there in the first place. He shook his head and left the room, thinking, _She'll be up in a little bit. It's time to get a breath of fresh air._

As he walked into the lobby, the desk clerk asked, "Did you sleep well?"

Sonic replied, "Yeah, I did."

He walked outside and looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary outside. It was just like any other normal day. As he began to wander around outside, something in his side pocket began vibrating. He reached in and felt a cell phone, which he found odd. He never used a cell phone before. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was registered by Verizon Wireless, and had a text message on it from an unknown sender. It said, "Sonic, meet me in the city at noon near the casino, and Blaze along with you. I have have something I wish to discuss with you."

Sonic wondered who gave him the cell phone, and then put it away, not even thinking too much about it. He instead looked back into the hotel to see Blaze, back in her biker outfit, walking out. Her jacket was now zipped so that none of her chest showed. He asked, "Are you ready for another interesting day?"

Blaze replied, "Yep, I'm ready."

Sonic said, "Let's head back to the city. Someone wants us over there by noon."

Blaze gave him a quizzical look and asked, "Who wants us over there?"

Sonic replied, "I don't know. I just got a text message on my cell phone saying that someone wants us over by the casino at noon today to discuss some things."

Blaze said, "I have a pretty bad feeling that it's going to be a trap."

Sonic grinned and said, "Even if it is a trap, I'm still heading over there. I live for the thrill."

He walked up to the train station, and Blaze said, "Same here."

They both walked up to the train station side by side, nearly close enough to hold hands. Blaze was half tempted to reach up and take his hand in hers, but she fought it, deciding that it wouldn't be a good idea at that point. They got tickets to head back to Station Square for free, and the clerk said that someone had prepaid for their tickets. Now, Sonic was beginning to get a little suspicious that it was going to be a trap, but nonetheless, he decided that he was going there anyways. When Sonic sat down, Blaze sat next to him, which made him wonder to himself, _Does she like me more than she let's on? I know I like her a lot...but does she like me?_

"I noticed that you're beginning to go everywhere I go," Sonic commented to start a conversation.

Blaze replied, "I just feel a little more secure when I'm around you recently. Also, you did save me back at the mine cart jump."

Sonic said, "We really saved ourselves. Had you not been there, I would have died in that circumstance, or if I had survived the fall, I probably would never have been able to get back out."

Blaze looked at him and asked, "You're sure about that?"

Sonic replied, "That jump was too far for me to jump, even if I propelled myself using my super speed. I needed a little bit more of a boost upward, and your provided it. So, working together, we got out of a situation that would have killed us both."

Blaze commented, "I noticed something last night. We worked together pretty well, despite hardly knowing each other."

Sonic replied, "Eh, I could have done better. I wasn't expecting those guys to be that powerful. I wonder who their master was..."

Blaze said, "Well, whoever it was, they sure know how to put fear into a guy. The man wouldn't even say his master's name, even though he would have lived anyways, whether he told us or not."

Sonic looked out the window, as if impatiently waiting for the train to arrive in Station Square. Blaze said, "Sonic, it's an hour long trip. I think it'll be quite a while before the train arrives."

Sonic said, "I just don't like going by train."

Blaze asked, "Why not?"

Sonic replied, "It's not fast enough. I could outrun this train."

Blaze asked, "Then why don't you?"

Sonic paused for a moment, as if trying to find an answer to that. Then, he turned with a smile and replied, "I enjoy your company."

Blaze was surprised by his answer, but then she just smiled. As their gazes met and locked, there was just a brief moment when Sonic could have sworn that he was about to say that he loved her. However, right as as his lips parted to say something that just instinctively came to his brain, he was interrupted by the PA aboard the train saying, "The train will be arriving at Station Square shortly."

Sonic shook himself out of the sudden daydream he had somehow lapsed into, and looked out the window again. He said, "Now the train begins to arrive...wait..."

He turned to her and asked, "Didn't you say it was an hour's ride?"

Blaze nodded in reply. Sonic's eyes went wide and he looked back out the window. Then, he realized that something wasn't right. He saw someone walk past them, heading towards the engine, and Sonic faintly heard beeping. Blaze heard it too, but she didn't think much of it. Sonic, however, knew the beeping instantly. Reacting quickly, he leaped out of the bench and tackled the man to the ground. He was a human being, meaning that Sonic was a little undersized to effectively wrestle him. However, Sonic did manage to reach into the trench coat he was wearing and turn off the bomb before the man suddenly kicked him back. Blaze had witnessed Sonic deactivate the bomb, and when the man stood up to go after Sonic, she kicked him in the face, knocking him back over. Then she leaped onto him and held her hand, now on fire, up to his neck.

Threateningly, she said, "Make any move, and I will kill you."

The man grinned and said, "You're too late to save anyone."

Her eyes widened in surprise, and then multiple explosions rocked the train. The explosions knocked it off of the tracks, and the whole thing nearly fell off and down to the deep jungle below. People began screaming in fear, and when it finally stopped, Blaze found herself against the wall, the man knocked out cold, and Sonic lying on top of her. Sonic rolled off of her and stood up, looking upward as he stood on the wall. He said, "This is bad..."

Blaze's shoulder was acting up again as she stood up. She said, "How long do you think this train is last?"

Sonic replied, "Not long enough to get everyone off."

Sonic began leaping up to the door using the seats, and Blaze followed. When he reached the door, he opened it and someone tumbled through, only to catch on to one of the seats using his big, gloved hands. Sonic grinned and said, "Long time, no see, Knux!"

Knuckles looked up at him, and said, "Nice to meet you, Sonic, though not the best place for us to meet."

Knuckles was wearing a black fighting gee, as if he was going to some martial arts competition or something. Blaze asked, "How did you end up here?"

Knuckles replied, "I'll explain it all after we get off of this train wreck!"

Knuckles began climbing again, and as Sonic followed him through the open door, he saw the people on board the train all panicking and clinging onto something to keep from falling. He said, "Don't worry! I'll figure out a way to get all of you off of here in a bit. But first things first, we need to secure the train."

One of the people said, "It was a miracle that the whole train didn't go shooting off the edge!"

Blaze came up and asked, "What did you have in mind to secure this train, Sonic? Neither of us are strong enough to hold it in place."

Sonic replied, "That's where Knuckles comes in. Think you can figure out a way, Knux?"

Knuckles gave him a thumbs-up and replied, "Leave it to me, Sonic."

As they climbed to the top of the train, Sonic wondered how long it would take for them to get everyone off of the train and moving back to the city across the train tracks. He turned to Blaze and asked, "If we were to get everyone off of the train and back to the city, how long would it take?"

Blaze thought for a moment, and then replied, "I'd say that, at this rate, it would take us until nightfall."

Sonic said, "Then I have a phone call to make."

As they reached the top, Sonic noticed that most of the damage had been to the bottom of the cars. The bombs had been set under the tracks to blow the train off of the tracks, but the plan hadn't worked as well as the people who had attempted it had probably hoped. Knuckles began pushing himself against one of the cars that was still on the track to keep the train from slowly slipping down. Blaze went back in to escort people out of the train and onto the tracks. During that time, before joining Blaze to help her out, Sonic traced message he had received using knowledge he got from Tails and called that number.

A rather deep voice on the other side answered, "Who is this?"

Sonic replied, "Sonic the Hedgehog speaking. You sent me the time to meet you today, right?"

The person on the other side chuckled a bit and said, "You've got a little bit of skill in tracing calls and messages, eh? That's nice...but why are you calling me now?"

Sonic replied, "The train jumped the tracks, but didn't fall off completely. Me and my friends are getting people off of the train and back to the city, but it is going to take an awfully long time."

There was silence for a moment, and then the person said, "Alright, I'll call a rescue force from on the military branches to have them carry the handicapped and elderly back. Let's arrange another time for meeting, this time at about eight o'clock by the casino."

Sonic asked, "Who are you?"

The person replied, "My name is Shadow. I'll explain exactly who I am later."

Sonic heard a beep, signaling that Shadow had hung up. He walked over to Knuckles and asked, "So, what's going on?"

Knuckles said, "Well, I was blown off course by a short-range missile that turned out to be a dud while I was going towards Station Square."

Sonic asked, "Why were you leaving your island in the first place? Don't you have the Master Emerald to guard?"

Knuckles said, "Well, it's a long story..."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: First date

Amy woke up later than usual thanks to her shopping late at night. She looked over at the clock and found that she had, in fact, woken up at around ten instead of seven. She sleepily got up and began getting dressed. She got on a white sweat shirt and jeans, just let her hair flow down to the middle of her back, and walked out. She smiled as the sun came in through the windows and then went to turn on the daily news. She turned it on, and the reporter said, "A crisis has arisen only a half an hour ago as we learned from an anonymous source that the train going from Mystic Ruins to Station Square jumped the tracks due to bombs set underneath it."

She suddenly began listening intently as the reporter went on, "Reports show that many passengers were aboard the train when this happened, but three particularly stood out, one being none other than the world-known hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. With him were two friends, a female cat identified as Blaze, who is also a government agent, and Knuckles the Echidna, a guardian on a floating island."

Amy said to herself, "No way..."

The reporter continued, "It appears that Sonic is conducting a massive evacuation of the train that could potentially take hours to finish. People who are fully capable of walking will be following Sonic and friends back across the tracks to Station Square. Estimates show that this trip could take several hours to finish, as the train was only five minutes into the trip back when the near tragedy struck. Most people are uninjured and capable of walking back. However, at this rate, Sonic may not be back until seven this afternoon. We will be expecting him at that time. Foxnews. We report, you decide."

Amy turned off the television, stunned by what she had seen. "The train was almost all the way off, and Sonic still managed to keep it from falling?! That's just...wow!"

Her phone began ringing, and she wondered who could be calling. She walked over and answered by saying, "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Silver. You told me to call you sometime, so I bought myself a cell and called you as soon as I could," she heard Silver say.

She smiled and said, "Hi, Silver! How are you today?"

Silver replied, "I'm doing great, and I was just thinking about something. You know that restaurant in Station Square almost right behind the station?"

Amy replied, "Yeah, that's my favorite one. Why are you asking?"

Silver said, "Well, I was wondering if you had time to meet me there sometime today."

Amy paused before asking, "A date?"

Silver replied, "I suppose you could call it that. I'm asking you because, well, I happen to like you, and when you told me to call you sometime, I couldn't resist asking. Besides, there's a few things I want to talk to you about there as well."

Amy could barely contain her excitement. She said, "Sure! How about noon?"

Silver replied, "Alrighty, then! I'll see you there! Bye!"

Amy set down the phone and said, "Yes! My first date! Wow, I didn't actually think he'd even want to go out on a date with me so soon, but I'd never turn down an offer like that from a guy like him. He did save me from those thugs, after all!"

She spent the rest of that morning getting ready to go out. She never took a car, as she never figured that she needed one. Rather, she trained herself in her running speed so that she could be like Sonic and not have to worry about any vehicle. Already, she was fast enough to run at least forty miles per hour by sprinting, a considerable speed for a girl like her. She got to the restaurant at the appointed time of noon, and found Silver waiting outside. He wore a blue, button up jacket made of a strange, jean-like material, and black trousers. He still wore his gloves, and she could see almost circle-like designs on them.

He said, "Wow, you look very pretty in that outfit."

Amy smiled and said, "I'm glad you think so. I didn't put much effort into doing my hair, so it's nothing special."

Silver said, "Nah, it's not. I actually think that having the hair down makes the girl prettier."

Amy asked, "So, shall we go in?"

Silver said, "I'll take the orders."

Soon, they were seated at a table and facing each other. The restaurant served hamburgers and fries, and soon they were both eating. Silver ate ravenously, leading Amy to wonder if he had gone without food for some length of time. Amy ate normally, and soon, Silver had finished his hamburger far before she was even halfway done with hers. She smiled and asked, "How long has it been since you've eaten?"

He had ordered three hamburgers, and was beginning to start on the second one when she asked her question. He replied, "Oh, it's been about two days since I've eaten a thing."

Amy stared at him and exclaimed, "That's an awful long time to go without eating anything!"

Silver said, "I've gone for even longer periods without food. I've even been forced to go for a day without water."

Amy exclaimed, "Lord, but that's crazy!"

Silver asked, "You want to know why that is?"

Amy replied, "Yes, I do, actually. Why would anyone have to go through that?"

Silver replied, "Alright, I've come from the future to stop a calamity from happening."

Amy asked, "The future?"

Silver replied, "That's right, the future. I've come from somewhere that has been fifty years in the future all the way back here to stop a demon named Iblis from coming into this world and destroying it."

Silver went on, "When I arrived here, though, my time machine landed me in the middle of nowhere, and it broke down on me. I had to wander around with minimal supplies and find my way to some sort of a civilization. I first arrived on the outskirts of this metropolis, and immediately got myself water and food. Then, I traveled here, having heard of heroes. I figured I could use their help to help me find the Iblis trigger and destroy it."

Amy asked, "How am I involved?"

Silver replied, "It depends. You don't have to be involved if you don't want to."

Amy said, "Sure, I'll be involved. You are, after all, my new boyfriend!"

Silver seemed slightly surprised by her calling him her boyfriend, but he shook it off and said, "Alright, then here's something that I can think you could do. Find the heroes, namely Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and tell them to meet me right outside of the station."

Amy remembered the news and said, "Speaking of Sonic, he won't be back until at least seven."

Silver asked, "Why is that?"

Amy replied, "There was a train wreck only this morning, and Sonic happened to be aboard the train. It was a terrorist bomb threat, and the bombs went off underneath the train, sending it flying off of the tracks. However, the train didn't fall all the way off, so now, working together with a cat named Blaze and Knuckles, they're evacuating the citizens on the train."

Silver had just started on his third burger when he heard the name Blaze. He stopped and after she finished her statement, he asked, "Did you just say a cat named Blaze?"

Amy replied, "Yes, I did. Why?"

Silver's eyes widened with surprise, and then he muttered a curse under his breath. Amy asked, "What's the matter?"

Silver said, "I must be in the wrong timeline. Blaze was in my timeline, and she was still relatively young. Now, there's a young Blaze in this timeline. Either I must in the wrong one, or I screwed up time!"

Amy thought, _This is starting to become a very strange first date..._

Silver said, "Alright, Amy. I think I have to be going now. It was nice talking with you."

Amy had just finished, and she said, "We should go out again sometime."

Silver said, "I'll call when I have time arranged for a date. Until then, ciao!"

He left, and so did Amy. She returned to her house with the intent of calling Tails and notifying him about this turn of events. When she arrived, she saw a black and red hedgehog outside her door, knocking. She called, "If you're wanting to see me, I'm right here!"

The hedgehog turned around and said, "You're Amy Rose, correct?"

Amy stopped, and wondered just who he was. She certainly didn't know him, but he had just said her name perfectly. She asked, "Who're you?"

The hedgehog replied, "My name is Shadow, and I'm a friend of Tails. He sent me here to talk to you about tonight's plan."

Amy remembered the e-mail from last night and she said, "Oh, right. Going to the casino at midnight, right?"

Shadow said, "You have a good memory, not that something like that is hard to remember. Anyways, you know what to do. Meet me and the others outside of the casino...and remember what you're doing there."

Shadow left, leaving Amy to wonder what was really going on behind the scenes. She walked into her house and walked over to her computer. In her boredom, she began surfing the web for anything that caught her eye. She spent some time watching videos on Youtube, reading fan fictions on , and a whole variety of other things, all to pass time while waiting for it to be close to dinner. She sighed and said, "This is going to be one heck of a night."

_**I noticed that there has a lack of reviews lately, and I'm somewhat confused. Normally, my stories get more than just five...but then again, this isn't one of the stories that is really popular. Well, anyone who is reading this, I hope you're really enjoying it so far!**_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: Top secret information gathering

"K, we're in the clear, boss," Espio said over his communicator. He was sitting perfectly still on the roof of a G.U.N base, watching guards as they went up and down the hallways. Then, as they passed by, he contacted the other two people of his group and told them to move on. Charmy, or Ryan, as he called himself, was the main computer person and had to get to supercomputer held within the base and gather the top secret info that they had.

Vector and Charmy came out of hiding and went into the next room. Espio silently watched them, and then he said, "Alright, figure out the door code into the next room from there. The supercomputer should be inside."

He looked around for any nearby guards briefly, and then dropped. He was still camouflaged, so anyone who had heard him still wouldn't see anything, but he felt that it would be better to be safe than not. He followed them into that room and silently shut and locked the door. Charmy began working on hacking the keypad, and Vector asked, "What is this all about, anyways? Did Shadow tell you anything, Espio?"

Espio replied, "Apparently, he wants some top secret info that's stored in the archives here. I have no clue what he's going to use it for, but if he uses the way I think he is going to, bad things are going to happen in the near future."

Vector asked, "Are you speculating that Shadow is going to use the info to try and destroy G.U.N?"

Espio nodded, and Vector said, "That would be bad...because then the whole world would be thrown into chaos. G.U.N has kept the peace around here for how long? Seventy-five years?"

Charmy replied, "Somewhere around there. However, not everyone is going to be mad that G.U.N was destroyed. Rather, most are going to be glad later that Shadow destroyed G.U.N. They're a group of power hungry bureaucrats that are practically pushing for world domination and practically everyone hates them."

Espio said, "It surprises me that they're still around."

Vector said, "If I remember correctly, they're only still around because the governments don't have enough power to deal with them."

Espio commented, "That's pretty sad."

Charmy said, "I'm almost done. Just give me a few more seconds and we'll be inside."

Vector commented, "You're as fast as ever, Charmy."

Charmy stopped for a moment to say, "I told you not to call me that. How many times-"

Vector said, "I know, you're Ryan to everyone else."

He sighed, leaving Espio to silently chuckle as Charmy continued to work on hacking in. Vector thought, _Why does he have to act like he's so sophisticated? It doesn't make much sense to me._

Then, a beep sounded from the keypad, confirming that the lock had been hacked. Charmy said, "Alright! We're in!"

"Espio, do you happen to remember what piece of info we were looking for?" Vector asked.

Espio replied, "I think we were supposed to find the location of any Chaos Emeralds in the region of the city."

Vector said, "Oh, great. He's planning to use the Chaos Emeralds for something big, most likely."

They walked inside, and Espio immediately noticed that there were three technicians below, working on some of the circuitry, hardly noticing that the door a floor above them had opened. Right before he leaped down, he noticed a figure crouched perfectly on the roof, watching the technicians as if waiting for the perfect time to strike. He instantly recognized the female chameleon, and about muttered her name under his breath. He quickly diverted his eyes to the scene below, and suddenly made his move. He leaped down and threw tranquilizer darts into their necks. Almost instantly, they fell over asleep. The rest of his team came down and Espio looked back up at her, who was just as surprised as surprise to see him as he was to see her. She leaped down, startling Vector and Charmy.

Charmy yelled, "Who are you, huh? A G.U.N agent, perhaps?"

She replied, "I could ask you the same."

Espio asked, "Emerald...what you doing here?"

She replied, "I could ask you the same. I'm here because I'm trying to find out what G.U.N is up to."

Vector asked, "You're on our side, in a way?"

Emerald replied, "In a way. However, if you get in the way of what I'm trying to do, I won't be merciful."

She walked over and simply inserted a disc into the drive. After a few moments, she pulled it out and said, "I've got just the file of data I needed."

Charmy said, "Alright, then we'll get our data and be on our way."

"Who sent you, Chaotix?" she asked. Espio was surprised that she even knew who they were.

Vector replied, "Some hedgehog named Shadow sent us here to find out the locations of all of the Chaos Emeralds in this city, and we're being paid a good amount, too."

Charmy was typing away on the computer, hacking into the top secret data profiles with ease. Emerald watched him in surprise, and asked, "How are you doing that?"

Espio explained, "He majored in this kind of thing during high school. He came to us with a great deal of knowledge on how to work and hack into electronic devices and now he's become the master of everything involving electronics."

Emerald turned back toward Charmy, and then Espio asked, "How did you survive that encounter? I thought you had died."

Emerald replied, "So did I, but someone saved me. I don't know who they were, but owe a large amount to them. They didn't seem to notice that they had saved me, however, as if it had been an accident."

Suddenly, an alarm sounded, and Charmy said, "Damn! I accidentally triggered security! Hang on, I almost have the data!"

Espio said, "Double time it, Ryan! They're coming!"

Several robots jumped into the room and landed around them. Emerald pulled out a katana while Espio simply readied his knives. Vector said, "You keep working, Charmy. We'll cover you!"

Espio took the offensive, diving between the robot's legs and throwing knives onto its back. It turned and began shooting at him wildly. He just vanished from sight and appeared on top of it. He threw a shuriken into its neck, severing a vital wire. He leaped off as the robot sparked and fell over deactivated. He turned to see Emerald's robot fall apart, having been cut into several pieces in the blink of an eye. Vector tore apart the one in front of him with his mouth, using his powerful jaws to rip it apart. Charmy turned and said, "Alright, everyone haul ass! We've got to get out of here!"

They began running, backtracking towards the exit. Espio said, "Emerald, follow us. We'll do a lot better if all of us stick together for the moment being!"

She nodded and ran with them. For the most part, Espio led the group, using his ninja training to look around him without having to even turn. He led them onward, but as they arrived outside, two large mechs landed in front of them, halting their progress. Espio said, "Split into pairs. Emerald, come with me."

Vector asked, "Since when are you the leader?"

Espio said, "Vector, don't argue, just act!"

Espio and Emerald both vanished in sudden sync, something that they hadn't done in a long time. The mech pilot seemed surprised that they had vanished, and then turned to take out the other two. However, it didn't get that far. Espio had planted several thick knives in the joints of the legs, and Emerald appeared on top. She cut off the missile launchers with two clean swipes. Then, Espio leaped up while the pilot was in a state of confusion, and threw a knife through the glass and into the pilot's head. The mech stopped moving, its pilot now dead.

Vector and Charmy had done as Espio had told them, and were running to engage the second one. They both leaped aside of the machine gun as it fired at them, and it swerved to try and hit Vector. However, this allowed Charmy to get behind it and latch on. He began hacking into the mech, trying to shut it down while Vector ran around it, occasionally slamming his body into one of the legs, trying to trip it. However, it then lifted up off of the ground to get an advantage over Vector, but it began malfunctioning as it flew away. It dropped to the ground, deactivated. Then, Vector ran forward, jumped onto the front of the glass, and punched it in. He grabbed the pilot and forced him into the glass, and through it, knocking him out.

He called, "Alright, let's get out of here!"

They began running off again, and now Emerald asked, "Are you going back to your headquarters?"

Espio replied, "I think so."

Emerald asked, "May I come with you? I really have no place to stay right now."

Espio turned to her and replied, "If it's alright with the boss, you can stay. I don't know what he's going to say about this matter."

Then, he said, "It's great to see that you're still alive, Emerald. I could never shake my mind off of you after that encounter."

Emerald smiled and said, "I'm glad that I'm back with you, Espio. I guess that now it'll be like old times, right?"

Vector asked, "So, you two are old friends?"

Espio replied, "Back when we were younger, we were best friends. Then, an accident happened and I thought I had lost her. And now...I don't really know what to do. She's back."

Vector said, "That's odd. You didn't seem that overjoyed."

Espio said, "That's the price of being a disciplined ninja."

Suddenly, they stopped, and they saw Shadow standing in front of them. He asked, "I heard the alarms. Did you get the data?"

Charmy handed him the flash drive that he had put the data onto. Shadow smiled in the darkness and said, "Very good. Now, I'll get you your money after I win a few games at the casino. Sound fair?"

Vector replied, "That sounds good to me!"

Emerald asked, "You...you were the same person that sent me to that base."

Shadow replied, "I didn't send you there. I just told you where to find the information you were looking for. Now, shall we get going? There's an important meeting going to be happening in a few hours."

_**This OC isn't really an OC, I guess. I took it from a few fan art pics I saw. Well, now I have the soon to be love for Espio. I'll be updating soon!**_


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Fateful meeting

_**Real fast description time! Emerald: Dressed in ninja suit, only her head visible. Long green hair, shimmering green eyes, green skin tone, and very slight frame, which is surprising considering what she is capable of. I forgot to add that in last chapter, so I did it now to save myself some pointing out...(though I doubt it is really going to work...).  
**_

Tails sat in his workshop, furiously typing up plans for the event that night. He was worried that he would be too late, not even aware that someone was at the front door, knocking. He just kept typing, unwittingly letting his visitor enter without even being noticed. Finally, he had all of his files ready and began printing, and the noise of the printer attracted his visitor to the garage. The door opened, startling him beyond words. He nearly had a heart attack, he was so scared by the sudden entrance.

However, upon calming seeing who it was, he calmed down and just stared in awe. The person was an orange-furred, female echidna that wore tribal clothing, with locks that went down in dreadlocks and beautiful green eyes. She was half-surprised that he jumped like he did, but she said, "Hello, may I talk to you?"

Her voice had a beautiful tone to it, and he said, "Um...yeah, I'm Miles Prower...you can call me Tails if you like. What's, uh...your name?"

He knew that he seemed somewhat shy now, but he quickly got rid of it, and the girl answered, "I'm Tikal. It's nice to meet you, Tails."

Tails stared into her eyes for a moment, and then asked, "Why are you here? I don't remember letting you in..."

Tikal replied, "I needed to talk with you about something. Have you met with Shadow, out of curiosity?"

Tails asked, "How did you know about that?"

He felt her eyes search him as she thought about what she was going to say. Something about him had caught her eye, he felt. She suddenly replied, "I've met with Shadow, and he told me to come and tell you to get ready for the plan. He also mentioned the sheets for everyone's part in this plan."

Tails said, "I have them right here. How did you meet him, though?"

Tikal replied, "I was out in the jungle, following my senses for a nearby Chaos Emerald. Shadow beat me to it, so we discussed who would get it. He finally agreed to let me have it if I did a certain something, and that certain something involved me coming to meet you and remind you about the plan."

Tails thought about it for a moment, and then said, "Alright. So, then I'm going to have to have to leave right about now by plane if I want to have any hope of making it to..." his voice trailed off as he began talking to himself. Tikal watched him as he looked at the time on his computer, shut it off, picked up the papers, and then began to get his plane ready for take-off.

She asked, "Can you take me with you? I also need to be there."

Tails turned to her and smiled as he said, "Sure thing! Just hop on the tail and hold on tight. I won't perform any aerial maneuvers, so you won't fall off."

She smiled back at him, and he helped her get onto the tail of the plane. As the plane revved up for take-off, she gripped the tail in fear that she might slip off. She asked, "Are you sure I can't sit beside you or something?"

Tails looked back at her, then looked down at the seat. It was designed for one person, but two was possible, and it would be safer for the second person. He just hadn't intended for a girl to be sitting right beside him. He said, "Um...alright. You can, if you're not going to be uncomfortable with it."

She slid down the tail of the plane, and as Tails made some more room, she slid down beside him. They were pressed together somewhat, but after a bit of adjusting, they both found themselves strangely comfortable. Tails took note that one of Tikal's legs was over one of his, which made him slight uncomfortable, but he didn't pay it any heed. As the plane flew into the air, Tikal watched as he carefully took the plane up into the air. As he flew out to sea, he suddenly turned it around and began heading for Station Square.

"You're a good pilot," she commented.

"Thanks," Tails replied, "I've been working on my skill for quite a while now."

"When did you start flying?"

"Let's see...I started when I was about eight. I was a prodigy, actually."

Tikal was surprised and asked, "You began when you were eight years old?"

Tails replied, "Yep! Back then, me and Sonic were best pals. We worked together when I was just a kid for about two years, and then we separated. We came back together only recently, seven years later."

Tikal guessed, "You're seventeen, then?"

Tails smiled and said, "Yep."

Tikal now slightly blushed and said, "I thought you were actually older than that. The way you acted...I thought you were more like twenty-one."

Tails seemed surprised and said, "That's odd. Not many people think I'm older than seventeen. In a lot of cases, people seem to think that I'm younger."

Tikal said, "Well, your voice, your looks, and the way you act...it just made you seem older."

Tails asked, "How old are you, out of curiosity?"

Tikal replied, "I'm your age."

Tails again glanced at her leg, and was even more embarrassed now than he was before. He didn't admit that, though. He just kept flying, not even fidgeting. As they neared the city, Tails asked, "I was wondering if, after this, do you want to go out sometime? Like on a date or something?"

Tikal seemed surprised, but she said, "Um...sure! Why not?"

Tails was surprised, but shook it off, smiling to himself. Even in the darkness, Tikal saw him smile, and could already guess which way this was going. He didn't know everything about her, but what she had said was technically true. She was seventeen, because she hadn't aged at all during the time she was in the Master Emerald. As Tails brought the plane down for an easy landing on the beach outside the city, he said, "You get out first."

Tikal wondered why, and then she noticed for the first time that one of her legs was on Tails. She blushed lightly and stood, allowing Tails to stand. He helped her out of the plane and then got out himself. He said, "Okay, follow me. We're going to be doing some pretty crazy things pretty soon..."

_**Next chapter will cause the story to have a serious change of tone, and you'll see why. Just be prepared for things to go from somewhat light-hearted to very serious in the next chapter.**_


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen: Turnabout

When Sonic arrived back in Station Square, he received another phone call from Shadow, this time telling him to delay meeting him until midnight. He also mentioned that he and Blaze would no longer be the same people after the meeting. This made Sonic extremely nervous, and it made Blaze ask him not to go. However, Sonic knew that he had agreed to it, and he was going to stick with it. Blaze, though fearing for the worst, reluctantly decided to go with him, even when Sonic told her that she did not have to.

And so, the hours passed, and as the time grew closer, Sonic's fears began to heighten. He wondered just what Shadow had meant with his words. Blaze was worried, but Sonic soon found that it wasn't herself she was worried about. She never really had a huge reputation, but he did. She was worried that something might happen to turn him from the world's greatest hero into something else entirely. Sonic reassured her that if anything happened, it wouldn't be too bad. Yet, something told him that he was lying to himself and to her.

Finally, the time arrived, and Sonic reluctantly went. Blaze followed, and when they arrived at Casinopolis, they saw Shadow standing right outside. He looked like he was waiting very calmly and patiently for him and others to arrive. To his great surprise, he found Tails there, along with a orange-furred echidna girl. Then, there was Team Chaotix and a female chameleon with them, and then Knuckles had also arrived there, and finally, Amy Rose, along with a white hedgehog with three quills on his forehead sticking upward. He looked at them all, and he asked, "What's the big gathering for?"

Shadow turned to him and replied, "It's time to unveil this city's biggest secret to you. It has been hidden within Station Square for the longest time, and has never been discovered...even by the government. Now, I am about to to show you something, and when I do, your very lives may change as you make decisions based upon what you find."

Tails asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Sonic said, "I was about to ask the same thing. That message had me worrying my head off."

Shadow turned to him and asked, "You're a world renowned hero, right?"

Sonic nodded in reply, and Shadow seemed disappointed. He said, "I fear for your reputation. I wouldn't want to have it shattered...but this is something that cannot go unseen, even by you."

Tails asked, "What is it?"

Shadow looked at a watch on his wrist, and he said, "We don't have enough time to do what I was planning to do the right way. For now, just follow me into the casino, and act casually."

The white hedgehog asked, "What's the meaning of this, Shadow?"

Shadow turned to him and replied, "Silver, I know that you are in the dark, but don't worry. Everyone else is going to be equally surprised."

Sonic shuddered at the thought of what he might discover. He began to wonder just what Shadow had meant by changing their lives, and his fears began anew. Something big was going to happen. Sonic could just feel the tension in the air as they moved into the casino. The first thing that Sonic noticed was that there wasn't anyone even inside the casino. They had either moved out, or the casino had been closed for whatever reason. But then, how had they came in?

Shadow said, "Go to the center, and stand around it. The time for the unveiling is near. Chaos will handle that."

The orange echidna asked, "He's with you, too?"

Shadow smiled and said, "That he is, Tikal. Did I not tell you?"

Tikal shook her head, and Shadow seemed somewhat confused. He said, "Whatever. I honestly remember it, but I guess I'm wrong."

There was something huge veiled in the middle, and Sonic's fears began to intensify ten-fold as they neared it. He barely managed to keep himself from stopping out of fear of what he was about to discover, and instead kept walking. He could feel an aura of fear emanating from this thing, whatever it was. Blaze silently whispered, "I don't think we should even be here...the door's were locked."

Sonic gulped and thought, _Someone's trying to hide something...I know it_

Then, as they all gathered around it, Shadow said, "Now, drop the veil."

The veil dropped, and Sonic's eyes opened in fear at what he see. He saw something that should never exist, something that shouldn't even have been there, something that had only existed in fairy tales. It was a huge beast...with the head of a lion and the body of a lion, but everything else was black and furry, not really belonging to anything in particular. It was dead, but on the side, the word G.U.N was clearly visible.

"A chimera?" Amy asked. Her voice quavered with surprise and something of fear.

Sonic corrected, "No, it's an Xeneth"

Shadow asked, "Care to explain what that means?"

Sonic explained, "It's a powerful creature infused from birth with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. No one knows how they first came into existence, and for a long time, people didn't even believe they existed. There were only two, and this...was one."

Silver looked on in awe, and then muttered the words, "Iblis..."

Sonic looked down at him and said, "That was the name of the other one. How do you know that?"

Silver looked up at him and replied, "I could ask you the same. You shouldn't know...unless..."

Shadow said, "There'll be time to discuss that later. For now, G.U.N is heading here, and they know exactly who all is here."

Sonic exclaimed, "What?! This is a trap?!"

Shadow replied, "Sadly, yes. There was no way we could have done..."

Suddenly, the creature came to life, and it looked at them all. Sonic gasped in shock, and even Shadow seemed surprised. He said, "What's this? A kickback from the emerald here?"

Sonic looked at the vault, which was wide open. There was a powerful light streaming from it. Sonic said, "I'll get it!"

He dashed into the vault at sonic speed and grabbed the emerald from the pad it was set on. He dashed out of the room and he saw the Xeneth was fully powered. He exclaimed, "We've got to get out of here! There's no way we can fight it in this state!"

"Stop them! They're planning to escape the scene!" Sonic heard someone behind him say. He saw a green hedgehog with sunglasses, a camo jacket and jeans and black boots standing there behind him, holding a communicator. He continued, "It appears that Sonic and friends have betrayed us all."

Sonic saw the badge of G.U.N on his jacket, and he snarled. He stopped, feeling a rage like none he had ever felt, sweep through him. This was all a set-up by G.U.N, and Shadow had known. But, he couldn't have done anything about it. Someone had to see the truth. And now, Sonic was mad, and his rage overwhelmed him. He flew at the hedgehog at a surprising speed, and punched him in the jaw, sending the hedgehog skidding backwards across the room. Then, he ran after him, his speed only doubling, surprisingly enough.

The hedgehog recovered with amazing speed and blocked Sonic's next blow. He then countered with a jab to Sonic's jaw. Sonic stumbled back from the surprising force of the blow, and then the Xeneth roared. It got Sonic back into his sense just in time to see its paw swipe at him. He leaped aside, but almost immediately, the next paw swung at him. Shadow yelled, "Use Chaos Control!!"

Sonic wondered what that was, but didn't hesitate. He yelled, "Chaos Control!".

The emerald began glowing in his hands, and then time slowed down, allowing him time to react. In that time, he literally flew over to where Shadow and the rest were. Then, time resumed, and a blinding flash surrounded Sonic as he appeared. Shadow looked at him in surprise, and then asked, "I thought for sure...well whatever! We have to get out, now!"

Tails said, "Get to the Mystic Ruins as fast as you guys possibly can! I designed a plane large enough for a lot of supplies in case we had to take a long journey, and we're going to have use that."

Sonic asked, "Wait, are you proposing that we leave the city entirely?!"

Shadow replied, "That's the only choice we have, Sonic!"

Sonic said, "Forget it! I'm staying to help these people! When word about this gets out, G.U.N is going to start taking over!"

Silver said, "Sonic, I know you want to help defend these people, but at this point, they won't even regard you as a hero anymore."

Sonic halted, and the words of Shadow rang in his head, the words of their very lives changing drastically. As they all began running, the Xeneth appeared, and roared. Shadow, thinking quickly, fired a spear of energy at the Xeneth, hitting it in the eye. It recoiled from the blow, and Shadow said, "Come on, Sonic! We have to go now!"

Sonic shook himself free of his thoughts and kept running. He said, "To Tails' workshop!"

They all began running as fast as they could to the train station, but when they arrived, they found that the whole plaza in front of it was swarming with G.U.N soldiers. Shadow said, "This is bad...this means that we're going to have to Chaos Control back to their. Sonic, do you think you could get us all over there?"

Sonic asked, "Are you going to help?"

Shadow replied, "I will if I have to."

Sonic said, "I'll give it a shot."

Blaze yelled, "Hurry it! They've noticed us!"

Sonic began focusing on the emerald, gathering its immense strength within him. He winced as the power entered him, but he was already used to using the emeralds. This was just touch compared to the amount of power that poured into him before. After he gathered a sufficient amount, he yelled, "Chaos Control!"

He wasn't a moment too soon. The G.U.N soldiers were getting ready to fire on them when they seemed to vanish. He took them all in free flight over to Tails' workshop, and Tails said, "Alright, move it, people! We're going to have to make a long trip to somewhere else!"

Sonic asked, "Do you have a location in mind?"

Knuckles said, "Now isn't the time for questions! Just do it!"

They raced inside, and Tails took them to a lower portion. Everyone that could comfortably fit in the cargo hold went inside the empty hold. Amy, Silver, Shadow, the Chaotix team, and Chaos went into the hold. Sonic and Knuckles sat on either wing, which were built to allow them to do that. Tails sat in the pilot's seat, with Tikal in the copilot's seat. Sonic thought about needling Tails, but he figured he would do that later. Something told him that nothing was going to be quite the same after this whole encounter.

Knuckles said, "Alright, we're airborne!" They had taken off, and were flying out to sea. That's all that Tails had in mind right now, and in the moonlight, it was hard to see anything else. Sonic said, "Alright, keep her flying, Tails. I'll think of someplace to set down later."

Tails said, "I've already figured it out. Just don't doze off and fall off of the wing."

Sonic rolled his eyes and said, "Thanks for the encouragement."

Knuckles thought he spotted someone below, near the landing gear, and climbed down there. He yelled in surprise, and then in pain as he was hit by someone. Sonic looked as that person on the underside was dragged off, and there was a bunch of yelling and kicking from the person. Knuckles said, "We have a stowaway, a G.U.N stowaway, no less!"

The bat girl, as Sonic could see it was, said, "Please, let me explain!"

Sonic leaped over and said, "Alright, start explaining."

The bat girl said, "I was only trying to escape from G.U.N."

Sonic said, "You're working for G.U.N."

"Was!" the bat girl corrected harshly, "I was working for G.U.N, and then when I found about the Xeneth, they began trying to kill me. So, I followed you guys in hopes that I could get away."

Sonic asked, "How come no one noticed you?"

The bat girl replied, "It's easy for a bat to be invisible in darkness."

Knuckles asked, "Do you have a name?"

The bat girl asked, "Isn't it polite to say your name before asking the girl's name?"

Knuckles sighed and said, "It's Knuckles. Now what about yours?"

The bat girl smiled and said, "The name's Rouge, world's famous treasure hunter."

Sonic said, "I've heard about you. Heh, I never though you'd show up here, though."

Knuckles said, "Alright, Rouge, but remember, if you're going to be traveling with us, you do as Sonic says. He's group leader."

Tails said, "Sonic, we have a problem."

Sonic turned away from Rouge to look at Tails, and Tails said, "I'm afraid that I forgot to refuel that plane after our last flight. We won't be able to go as far as planned."

Sonic said, "Set us down on the shore of another continent, at least."

Tails replied, "Will do!"

Sonic turned to Rouge and said, "Alright, you know what to do. If you do anything suspicious, I'll have to ditch you and leave you to fend for yourself."

Knuckles said, "I don't think that'll work with her. How about this? If she does anything suspicious...we'll take her to an area highly guarded by G.U.N, and drop her off there."

Rouge's eyes widened in the darkness, and Sonic saw that Knuckles threat had an effect. Rouge had no intentions of going back to G.U.N after what they had done, which officially confirmed that she was telling the truth. He said, "So, keep yourself in line, Rouge."

Sonic thought, _This is the biggest turnabout I've ever had in my life. I've practically gone from world-wide hero, to world-wide villain and probably have a bounty on my head._ _I wouldn't be surprised if G.U.N issued news that we freed the Xeneth...and are using that to erase any evidence that they had anything to do with it..._

Tails asked, "What's on your mind, Tikal?"

Tikal replied, "I'm just...uneasy about this whole thing."

Sonic said, "Same here. Well, there's only one thing we can do now."

Tikal asked, "What's that?"

Sonic replied, "We strike back against G.U.N. I want to know who set us up for that trap, and I want him dead."

Tails turned to him in surprise, and he said, "You never usually want anyone dead."

Sonic replied, "Things change, little buddy. Things change, and things have definitely changed over the last seven years. I'm no longer the same Sonic you once knew."

_**Tell me what you thought about the turnabout, as I put a lot of thought into this. I hope that you like it!**_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen: She loves me?

After the initial encounter with Rouge, Sonic decided to head down into the cargo hold to talk to Blaze. She had to have been pretty shaken up by this whole experience, and he wanted to know if she was still alright with this decision. He swung in, and Chaos said, "I'll be heading out, then. I would like to help Tails guide us to a place that would be very good for us to set down for now."

Sonic watched him swing out, and he wondered how a creature made purely out of water was even possible. Then, he spotted Blaze over in a corner, shivering as if she was extremely cold. Sonic felt that it was really cold in the cargo bay, and even he felt like he was going to start shivering. He walked over to her and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Blaze looked up at him and said, "I'm fine...I'm just cold."

Sonic said, "Yeah, I know. I wish that Tails had bothered to install a heater."

He sat beside her, and she snuggled up against him for warmth. Sonic didn't even think too much about it, feeling that it was almost natural. No one else seemed to notice, as they were talking with their friends, but Shadow noticed. However, instead of commenting on it, he just smiled and walked over to talk with Silver and Amy. Blaze asked, "Do you know where we're headed."

Sonic shook his head and replied, "Tails was somewhat vague on the details."

Blaze sighed and said, "I wish that I didn't have to put up with having to run, and be trapped inside this cargo hold. It was meant for supplies, not people!"

Sonic said, "It was the first thing that Tails could think of, and probably the only thing that would have worked. Hey, I'm glad that you and I are still alive."

Blaze smiled, and then pressed closer to Sonic, watching everyone else. She said, "You're cold."

Sonic put his arms on her and began lightly rubbing her back, saying, "I think everyone here is, Blaze. There is no heater, and we're in the air at night. That will make anyone cold."

Blaze's tension visibly left her as her body relaxed as they quietly snuggled, not even caring that people noticed them. Blaze began softly purring as Sonic calmly rubbed her back, trying to heat her up and comfort her, and Sonic just felt happy. There was something said there that words could never say, a secret that they shared that could only be explained in feelings and motions. _Actions always speak louder than words. I've noticed this many times...but I've never said that I love her in this way, _he thought.

Now, as he looked down at her, her eyes shut, he whispered, "I won't ever leave you, Blaze. I'll be with you..."

Blaze looked up at him, and asked, "What was that?"

Sonic shook his head, and replied, "Nothing. Just...muttering to myself."

Blaze smiled, and then started going back to sleep. Shadow then walked over, and just smiled again. He asked, "Keeping her warm?"

Sonic looked up Shadow and asked, "What was that all about? I mean, if you knew the Xeneth was there, and that it was a trap, why did you take us there? We could have avoided a world of pain."

Shadow replied, "Sonic, you now understand something about G.U.N that you didn't before. If I hadn't shown you that when I did, eventually, G.U.N would have taken you out. I found out that you were nearing the top of their hit list."

Sonic said, "That's messed up right there..."

Blaze looked at Shadow and said, "Shadow, I thank you for what you did. I knew about this project, but I never would have had the heart to admit it."

Sonic looked at her in surprise, and asked, "You knew?"

Blaze sighed and sat up. As she did, the warmth that he was sharing with her vanished instantly, causing Sonic to shiver almost immediately. He kept himself from moving to much, but Shadow noticed it. He asked, "You're really that cold?"

Sonic admitted, "Yeah, I am."

Blaze looked at him, and said, "Sonic..."

Silver walked over and asked, "Sonic, how did you know about the Xeneth?"

Sonic looked up in surprise and replied, "I don't really remember where I learned about them. Why do you ask?"

Silver replied, "Sonic, I don't want to let you know this, but from where I come from, you weren't supposed to know a thing about the Xeneth. Your knowledge worries me, and is making me suspicious about you."

Sonic seemed confused and asked, "What reason do you have to be suspicious of me?"

Silver said, "I'm sorry, Sonic..."

He sighed as he continued, "I'm just tired is all, sorry about what I'm saying. You're right, there's no reason to suspect you for anything."

He walked back, blinking his eyes tiredly. Sonic watched him, and then Shadow said, "Sonic, you'd best to go to sleep, and if you want to keep warm, I suggest doing what you were doing before. I don't think you minded that, did you?"

Sonic looked down at Blaze, who hadn't been paying as much attention to the conversation as she had on warming herself up. Sonic just smiled at her, and then Shadow walked off. He said, "Also, remember this. You're more than meets the ordinary eye."

Sonic sighed. Too many riddles in one day for him to solve effectively bothered him. He never liked mysteries, and if he ever had to solve one, he preferred to do it as fast as possible. He had a strange feeling that there were stranger mysteries yet to come. He sighed and just leaned back against the wall. Blaze asked, "What did he say to you about staying warm?"

Sonic shook his head and replied, "I'm not sure that you want to know. I'm not sure how you feel about it now."

Blaze realized what he meant, and then, to Sonic's surprise, she snuggled up against him again. She said, "Sonic, I love you. Just thought I'd let you know."

This surprised Sonic even more than her sudden action. _She loves me? Really?_ he thought. Then, she fell asleep on him as he began rubbing her back again, purring while she was asleep. Sonic couldn't help it. He felt himself lulling off to sleep, the sound of her purring soothing his scattered thoughts. He let the rhythm of her soft purring lull him closer and closer to the edge of sleep, and his last words before he fell asleep were, "I guess...I love you...too."

_**I hope none of you think I did this too early. Well, tell me what you thought about it, and I'm sorry, but I'm only really able to do one chapter at a time on week days due to high school. Well, let me know your feedback!**_


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen: A rough landing. Sonic the new leader

Tails forced himself to fly all night, and was dead tired when morning came about. Tikal had already fallen asleep, and Tails was wondering just how long he'd last, and then he saw land. It was a little far, but Chaos had led them to the right place to drop off. As he neared it, the plane's engines sputtered and stopped, a bad sign. "Uh oh..." he said, and then the plane began dropping towards the sea, causing him to let out an involuntary scream as it sped towards the sea. It didn't dive straight for it, allowing Tails to level it out some, but they were going to hit water, no matter what they did.

It crashed into the water, and the plane groaned with the impact. Tails said, "C'mon, baby. Hold together and get us to land..."

It slid across the water, and by now, Tikal was screaming in fear, thinking that they were going to stop dead in the water and sink. Tails said, "We're going to have to abandon ship at this point!"

Tikal looked back at the cargo hold, and saw Chaos pushing the plane towards the land. They made it to land, and Tails felt relieved. He turned to Chaos and called, "Thanks for the close save!"

Tails leaped out and ran to the cargo hold, and then he opened it up. There, he saw everyone getting up from the rough landing, but his jaw dropped when he saw Sonic. Both he and Blaze were laying together, and immediately, the wrong thought popped into Tails mind at just the wrong moment. However, he laid that thought out and asked, "Is everyone okay?"

Sonic gave a thumbs up as he stood, and everyone began acknowledging Tails. He smiled and said, "Alright. Sorry about the rough landing. I hadn't expected the fuel to run out that fast."

Knuckles walked up and said, "Alright, everyone out! It's time to get moving!"

Everyone began walking out, some of them on shaky legs. Tails waited until Sonic got out and then thought about commenting about the way he had seen them. However, he instead asked, "Are you ready for whatever is coming up?"

Sonic replied, "I'm not sure."

Blaze asked, "What do you mean?"

Sonic thought for a moment, and then said, "Never mind that. Let's just get going."

They walked outside onto an empty beach along the coast of an unknown continent. None of the people that were there recognized it at all, except for Chaos and, surprisingly, Shadow. Sonic asked, "So, where are we?"

Shadow replied, "We are in Taslamare, a land of ancient magic and might. Hardly anyone in the world knows about it now."

Sonic turned to him and asked, "Where did you learn about this place from?"

Shadow replied, "I've been here before, and I know the layout of this place pretty well. If we are to find shelter, I suggest we head straight for the heart of this sub-continent."

Shadow began heading off, but then Tails asked, "Why is a sub-continent?"

Shadow turned back and replied, "You'll see in a bit. Be patient, Tails."

Shadow led them northward, not even mentioning a single word about what was going to happen. Then, they approached a sheer drop leading into the ocean, and Shadow said, "This is why it is a sub-continent, and one that isn't even remotely noticed by G.U.N. I guess that you could say that it isn't even a sub-continent. It's more of an island."

Tails asked, "What happened to the rest of it?"

Shadow replied, "It flew up into the air, also becoming an island."

Then, he pointed down below and said, "The remaining people, not daring to go to the land above, set up a series of caves that start here and carve inward. We can use this island as our base of operations for right now."

Sonic asked, "Since when are you the leader, huh?"

Amy said, "I was about to ask you that myself."

Knuckles said, "It's obvious. He's selfish, and thinks that he has complete control of our group."

Shadow glared at him and said, "Well, aren't you ungrateful, stupid, hard-headed-"

His insult got no farther. His mouth just shut, and wouldn't open. A blue light surrounded his mouth, suggesting that there was something holding it shut. Shadow began to fight with this object, but Silver said, "Unless you just shut your big mouth right now, I'm not letting go!"

Espio and the rest of Chaotix said, "You'd shut up and just let someone else take over. No one thinks of you as their actual leader and they won't do everything you tell them to."

Emerald stood beside him and just watched as the barrier lifted from Shadow's mouth. He asked, "Then who is the leader going to be, then? I'm the world's-"

Sonic yelled, "Shut up!"

After a moment of silence, Sonic ranted, "I don't care what you think you are, you're not leader. You got me? I'm going to take over and we're going to dish out some serious business! Now, those caves below will be our base of operations, our hideout so to say. From there, I will be the one coordinating attacks on G.U.N, not you."

Shadow backed off, seeming defeated for the moment. He grumbled to himself, and Blaze told Sonic, "Way to put him down. That was cool."

Sonic turned to his group and said, "Move right in and make yourselves comfortable. If there's one thing I won't do, it is this. Forcing my people to go into combat right away, especially when they haven't even had a chance to recover from the massive blow that was dealt to us by the revelation of the Xeneth. Make yourselves at home, because we're going to be here for a long time."

They went into the caves, and Tails found that they were a lot warmer than he had expected. The entrance had them wondering what kind of a place they were in, but when they got to the main area, even Shadow's jaw dropped in amazement. It was a grand area, with light streaming in everywhere, shining down on a large town that used to be occupied. There were still lots of buildings in the main area, grand buildings that were of the most impressive architecture that Sonic had seen, even in the modern city. The buildings were towering, each one with the roof connected to the ceiling. They were all white, purely white, and they gleamed in the sunlight that streamed in. Jewels were embedded in the sides, and they were so large and beautiful that Rouge was practically drooling. Blaze suddenly said, "I recognize this place..."

The whole group turned to her in surprise, and Espio asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Blaze said, "I...just know. I know this place in my heart...but I've never even been to it...have I?"

Charmy asked, "What all do you remember about it? Have you lived here before?"

Sonic was confused, and then Blaze said, "Yes...I was born here. My life...started here."

Shadow said, "Then my assumption was correct. Blaze, do you happen to possess a necklace of some kind?"

Blaze turned to him in surprise and asked, "How did you know that?"

Shadow replied, "Blaze, you recognize this place, and you belong here because of who you are. If I am correct, you are the long lost princess of this nation."

Blaze turned to him in surprise and asked, "Are you kidding me?"

Shadow shook his head and replied, "No, I am not. Welcome to the kingdom of Solace, home of the Sol emeralds, or at least it was their home. I don't know where they are now."

Sonic noticed that the streets below weren't empty, though. There were some figures down below on the grassy streets of this town, marching around and keeping guard. Sonic wondered who they could be and was just about to alert the group to their presence when Charmy said, "Guys, we've got enemies down below!"

Sonic shut his mouth and seemed annoyed. Tails took out a pair of binoculars and looked down at the people in the city. Then, he looked up at the windows, and Sonic asked, "What are you looking for, Tails?"

Tails smiled and said, "Guys, this city is anything but abandoned."

_**I'm sorry for the delay. I signed up for a community and played a role-play on a forum today, so I've been pretty busy. Anyways, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter!**_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen: Blossoming love

The group cautiously descended into the city, wondering why it was inhabited now. The people, however, weren't G.U.N soldiers, luckily for them. Instead, they were animal people, just like the group. The guards saw them coming, and moved to meet them, but they didn't seem all that friendly. One gruffly asked, "Who are you?"

Sonic replied, "I am Sonic the Hedgehog, and these are my friends." Sonic was somewhat surprised that these guards spoke English.

One of the guards asked, "You're Sonic the Hedgehog? For real?"

Sonic replied, "Yeah, I am. Why?"

The guards instantly straightened up and said, "So you're not hostile. I was worried that you might be hostile from the way you guys looked."

Shadow said, "Hey, I recognize you guys from somewhere..."

One of them looked over, and asked, "Shadow, right? Yeah, I can see where you remember us from. We were part of a special task force sent to ARK to check up on the investigations. However, when we reported back to G.U.N, they took us off the hook and actually fired us for not "doing our job right"."

Espio muttered, "I know how that feels."

The guards, Sonic noted, had swords and leather armor, which Sonic found confusing. However, Rouge then asked, "How did you end up with those?"

Sonic again strangely found himself abruptly interrupted by someone saying the same words he was about to say. The guards replied, "Well, it was the best thing that we could think of to help us fit in with these people."

Sonic looked around them and asked, "Are they all inside of these buildings?"

The other guard, who had stayed quite the whole time, replied, "Yes, and they are watching you right now." To Sonic's surprise, it was a girl.

Blaze walked up and looked up into the windows to see several people looking down at all of them. Then, she felt the piercing gazes locked on her, and she felt most uncomfortable. She walked up next to Sonic to try and get at least a little bit of comfort. Sonic asked, "Is there a place for us to stay here?"

The guards looked at each other, and then the female said, "You're going to have to talk to our current leader about that. He'll decide that."

Sonic asked, "Can you take us to him?"

The girl smiled and said, "Follow me."

They followed her through the dazzling city, and more than once, both Rouge and Tikal mentioned something about it being a paradise, though both for different reasons. Rouge was staring at the jewels, while Tikal looked at the life surrounding them. As they got further into the city, it became obvious that there were people there. In fact, in about the middle of the city, there was a whole crowd of people and it was like a marketplace in a foreign country. As Sonic and and his friends pushed through the crowd, trying to keep up with the female guard, they were offered food and other items from merchants desperately trying to sell their wares to keep up with the rest of the competition. They always just brushed it off, trying their best to keep up with the guard.

Finally, they got out of the mayhem and into a square section where the people just stayed out of. There were two guards standing there in golden armor, and as the guard led Sonic and his group to them, they said, "Halt. Those who wish to enter the royal domain must have permission from his majesty himself."

The guard said, "These are Sonic and friends, the people that his majesty has been waiting for."

The guard began laughing and said, "Have this hedgehog prove that he's Sonic and I'll believe you."

The female was about to protest, but Blaze stopped her and said, "Just let Sonic show off. He'll enjoy it, I'm sure."

Sonic smirked and walked up in front of the guard and asked, "You want proof?"

Knuckles asked, "Do your thing, Sonic."

Sonic said, "Alright, make way."

He stood in the middle, and then spun into a ball and spun in place. Knuckles stood in position to stop him, and he blasted forward faster than the guard could track. The guard just stared in amazement for a moment, and then said, "Wow! Okay, that's proof enough. I'll let you pass, as his majesty has been looking forward to meeting you ever since Shadow told him that you were coming."

Sonic said, "Alright, thank you for letting us pass." He had been stopped in mid-roll by Knuckles, who flipped him out of it back in front of the guard.

The guard stepped aside and they were allowed into the palace. Blaze walked side by side with Sonic, causing Tails' to wonder how they could fall in love so fast. He looked over at Tikal just in time to see her looking straight at him. She smiled at him and then looked ahead. He unknowingly smiled back and then looked ahead as well. As they walked, Tikal edged over to him and asked, "You want to go somewhere on this island to hang out...just you and me?"

Tails looked over at her in surprise, and then replied, "Sure! What place did you have in mind?"

Tikal replied, "Right outside the caves. How about later today, during the evening?"

Tails smiled and replied, "Sure thing!"

They walked into the palace and the guard led them into the throne room. There, he said, "Do as I do."

He walked in, and the knelt before the king. Sonic and the others followed his example. The guard said, "Your royal highness, you have long expected visitors here to see you."

The king, an older feline with grizzled fur, said, "Ah, if it isn't the famous Sonic the Hedgehog. I should say that, to most of the world, your infamous now, but to me, you shall never be that low."

Sonic smiled and said, "Thank you, your highness. We have come to you with one request. May we have shelter here for as long as we need it?"

The king smiled at him and said, "Sonic, you can have whatever you need here to help you in your quests. However, I would like to ask a favor of you as you adventure."

Sonic asked, "What is it?"

The king replied, "This kingdom once held seven Sol emeralds, and they were its source of power. Now, they are lost, having been sent across the world by magical forces."

Sonic said, "If you want us to reclaim them for you...it would be my honor."

The king smiled and said, "You may have a special meeting hall and bedrooms in my palace. They are off limits to all but yourselves. Please, make yourselves at home."

Sonic said, "Thank you, your majesty."

They left, and were escorted to their chambers. There was enough rooms to where none of them had to share a room. They all had their own personal rooms, and they were filled with luxuries of all kinds. Expensive sofas, their own showers/baths, and grand beds for them to sleep in. Sonic said, "I feel like a king here!"

Blaze looked at him and said, "I'm sure you do."

Sonic turned to face her, and saw her just smiling. Smiling to see him as optimistic as he was, even when there was something big going on in the world outside this paradise. She asked, "Sonic, can I talk with you in private for a moment?"

Sonic replied, "Sure. Come on in."

Blaze turned to him and asked, "Do you love me?"

Sonic seemed surprised, and replied, "Of course. Why?"

Blaze breathed a sigh of relief, and then she said, "I just hadn't heard you say it back...and I wanted to make sure."

Sonic walked over to Blaze and said, "Hon, I love you more than life."

He then kissed her on the lips. At that moment, Sonic felt bliss flow through him, almost like he could fly. Blaze let herself press against him, and they held their kiss for a few seconds. Then, they both broke away, staring into each others eyes, each feeling the others heart pounding against their chests. Then, they embraced, not wanting to let go. Sonic was just sitting there, wanting this moment never to end...and then he felt a rumble come from Blaze's belly. He looked down at her with a quizzical look, and then asked, "Are you hungry?"

Blaze giggled and said, "Yes, I am."

Sonic suggested, "Why don't we go and get something to eat?"

Blaze smiled and said, "Alright. What did you have in mind?"

Sonic said, "I don't know what all there is. Let's just go have a look around."

_**Two chapters in one day! That should do as make-up for the delay last time. Hope you are enjoying this so far!**_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen: Chosen ones. Rapidly developing love.

That evening, just as he had promised, Tails went outside of the caves, near the sea. His heart was pounding with excitement, and he was wondering just what he was going to be talking about with her. He found her sitting outside, humming a peaceful tune to herself, staring out to the sea towards the setting sun. He walked up and said, "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Tikal looked up and said, "I see you decided to come. I was worried that you wouldn't stick to your promise."

Tails sat next to her, and said, "I always keep my word. Sonic can testify to that."

Tikal smiled, and then she said, "There's something that I needed to talk to you about, and it concerns you, especially."

Tails turned his full attention to her and asked, "What is it about?"

Tikal replied, "You see, there was this prophecy, a long time ago, that there would be heroes chosen by fate to fight certain evils. There were three prime evils to be fought, a monster, a wizard, and the corruptness of the authorities. Chaos has always told me about this, and he says that, in the end, he was the monster that I had to seal away. He's past that point, but still, I've found it to be more than true. And, I've found out who the other chosen ones are."

Tails asked, "Who are they?"

Tikal said, "I don't know your role yet, but you are one."

Tails sat there, staring at her in total disbelief. He asked, "How am I one? I'm no one but a friend of Sonic's! That doesn't really make me all that good."

Tikal asked, "Explain the mechanics, then? How did you become so good at such a young age?"

Tails couldn't think of an answer to that, and Tikal said, "That signals that you are one of the chosen ones. I do not yet know your role as a chosen one."

Tails seemed bewildered. The thought of him being a chosen one, a hero chosen by fate to defeat a certain evil, overwhelmed his mind. He sat there in a daze, looking out to the sea. Tikal looked at him in confusion, and then she realized what was going through his mind, and she couldn't help but giggle to herself. She shook Tails and said, "Hey, it's not that big of a deal..."

Tails turned to her and replied, "Yeah it is! I've never been chosen for anything! I'm just a normal fox boy!"

Tikal looked at him in surprise and asked, "Is that how you always saw yourself?"

Tails asked, "What's the matter with that? I've never been a hero...I've just helped Sonic is all."

Tikal said, "No, I've seen you as more than a person that just sits on the sidelines. I've seen you do things worthy of calling heroic."

Tails' eyes brightened, and he asked, "Like what?"

Tikal replied, "Like the time that you got Sonic out of the Hydrocity, and the time that you helped him defeat Eggman in the marble ruins, etc."

Tails couldn't helped but be stunned by Tikal's point of view. He asked, "You really think that I deserved to be called a hero?"

Tikal smiled and said, "Even those who help the main heroes are heroes themselves. That's what I've always believed."

Tails smiled at her, and she smiled back. Their gazes locked, and they just stared into each others eyes, letting themselves get lost in each other. It lasted for what felt like hours, and as the sun dropped down below the water on the horizon, Tails felt something he hadn't felt before. He liked Tikal, and his liking went further than he had once thought it could for anyone. Then, he looked back out to see the sun dip behind the horizon. He asked, "Are you feeling hungry, Tikal?"

Tikal thought about it for a moment, and then said, "No...not really. Though, if you want to get something to eat, we can both go."

Tails thought about how this was getting to be more and more like a boyfriend/girlfriend relation, and he suddenly found himself beginning to think perverted thoughts. He quickly shoved them aside to keep himself from trying to think of Tikal in that way and said, "Well, I know that I'm hungry. I have been for a while now."

Tikal smiled and said, "Okay, I'll go back in with you. I find talking with you quite entertaining!"

Tails turned away as he lightly blushed. No girl had ever liked him this much. They both wandered back into the city, and Tails walked into the palace. After searching for a bit, they found the kitchen, and Tails wandered in to find Knuckles and Rouge sitting at opposite ends from each other in the room. Tails walked over to Knuckles, who was busy stuffing his face, and he asked, "How much does the food cost?"

Knuckles replied, "That's the best part about this food, besides it tasting spectacular. It's all free for us. We don't have to pay a single penny for this stuff!"

Tails was surprised, but Tikal wasn't. They were honored guests of the king himself, so it would be natural that they would get a bunch of stuff for free. Tails said, "Alright! That's awesome!"

They got themselves food, which consisted of nuts and berries, along with some vegetables and fruit, and sat down together at a table. They sat across from each other and just talked the whole time. The conversation ranged to multiple topics, including his tech skills, the things he had done in his spare time, what he had made and what he knew about the current technology of the world, to how Tikal had lived in the past, about her being trapped in the Master Emerald with Chaos, and about how Chaos had shattered the Emerald because they needed to be out in the world to help defend it from the vast evil that was gathering right under the people's noses. They had continued to talk even after they had already finished, and both found their conversation immensely enjoyable. Tails figured that she was just as social as he liked to be, but hadn't gotten this much of a chance to talk to anyone.

Finally, it was nearing the time that Tails would normally go to bed. He looked at the empty trays that the food had came on, and then looked around for where everyone was putting them. They were stacking them up on a counter near the kitchen where the food had been served. He walked over with both of the trays and set them there. Then, he walked back, and said, "We'd best be getting some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, I'll bet."

Tikal smiled and said, "Alright, let's head to our quarters."

They went back, and right before they went to their separate quarters, Tikal said, "Good night, Tails."

He turned to reply, and she gave him a good-night kiss on the cheek. Tails knew what it was, but it was enough to make him blush heavily. He turned away, seeming dazed, and walked into his room. Tikal giggled as she watched him enter his room, and then she thought, _He's so cute..._

She walked into her room and fell asleep. Tails wrote in his daily diary about this wonderful encounter, and put a lot of emphasis on it. He told it that he would remember that kiss forever, and then he went to bed, still thinking about her. That night, he even dreamed about her, dreamed that they sat in a grassy meadow, their gazes locked, holding hands, and the moment of silent bliss never seeming to end.

_**Sorry for the semi-long delay. My hand got jammed while I was playing basketball in team sports and so I couldn't type right for a while. My hand is still sore, but I can type fairly good now. Tell me what you think so far, and do you like the Taikal couple? (TailsXTikal for those like that term better...) oh, and Tikal's good night kiss...it's a custom of her people that she fondly follows.  
**_


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen: First plan of action

_**Chapter Eighteen! Yay! Okay, now that this story has gone in for a bit, and I hope that you guys have a good idea of what the characters are like, it's time for some rising action. Things are going to start getting real intense very soon.**_

Shadow was the first one into their designated meeting hall. It was around six in the morning, and Shadow had decided that he was going to be their first. He walked into the room and immediately seated himself at the table. He had already set out a whole bunch of papers and blueprints to follow right as Sonic walked in. Sonic said, "You're early."

Shadow asked, "What about it?"

Sonic shook his head and said, "It's good to have someone who's willing to come in early and set everything up...though I should be the one doing that more often."

Shadow asked, "So, is that what you're going to start doing soon?"

Sonic replied, "Yeah, probably. Just need to get to bed earlier."

Shadow grinned and said, "Glad to see that you're thinking ahead already."

Sonic sat down at his place, and the next moment, Blaze walked in. Sonic smiled and said, "Good morning, Blaze. How are you feeling?"

Blaze looked up at him and replied, "I'm a little tired, but I'm ready for action if we need to start today."

Shadow said, "That's good. Now, all we need is for the others to hop on in here. Let's just hope that they're somewhat timely..."

About fifteen minutes later, all of the others filed in. Chaos was last, but that was because he was making sure that everyone came inside as they were supposed to. Then, when they were all seated, Shadow said, "You're all right on time. Sonic had me set up the plans for right now, as he wasn't sure about how it was going to have to work. So, I'll be briefing you for today."

He picked up the papers and then set out the blueprints on the table. He said, "Now, G.U.N is huge, having multiple bases and a lot of ground. Some people speculate that there is no way to break the foundations of G.U.N. However, I think there's a way."

Espio asked, "How are you proposing that we gain solid ground where there is none?"

Shadow replied, "We weaken G.U.N's foundations."

Sonic asked, "Can you give us more specifics, Shadow?"

Shadow replied, "Alright. From here, there are two sea bases, and a bunch of their bases lined up along the shore. We currently have more of an advantage at sea, and today is our chance to strike at one of the bases that lies at sea. We can take a boat, have Tails drop us off a few meters away from a blind side of the base, and then we can go in and take it out. That would be a good start."

Knuckles asked, "Where's this blind side going to be at?"

Shadow replied, "Tails is the only one that really needs to know that part, and so he does. I told him the last night before he actually fell asleep."

Tails said, "Yeah, I freaked out when he came into my room."

Shadow then said, "We'll do the same with the other base. Then, that'll take care of quite a few risks of being discovered here until we can figure out a good attack plan for the bases along the coasts."

Sonic suggested, "How about separating into two groups to take out these bases at the same time?"

Shadow said, "I was about to get to that, Sonic, but you beat me to the punch. Yes, as Sonic suggested, we should split into teams, one led by Sonic...and the other led by Tails himself, who has had an interest in doing this for a little while. Alright, team captains, pick your members."

And so, the teams were divided out. Sonic chose Blaze, Knuckles, Chaos, Rouge, Amy, and Charmy. Tails chose Tikal, Shadow, Silver, Vector, Emerald, and Espio. And then, Sonic said, "Alright, let's move out! We've got a short time to do this, so lets make it count!"

They all left to go aboard the plane and fly to their respective targets. Again, Sonic found himself cramped, but this time, he had a lot more people with him as his team gathered around him. Tails' group huddled a little ways away to discuss things among themselves. Blaze suddenly said, "The king wants to talk to you and me after this mission. He said it was something important."

Sonic made a mental note of that in his head, and said, "Alright, I'll remember that. Thanks for notifying me."

Amy commented, "I think it has something to do with her heritage, right?"

Blaze replied, "I'm not sure. He didn't have time to give me a lot of details."

Chaos thought to them, _I'm almost positive it has something to do with your heritage, as well as your obvious love for each other._

Sonic almost immediately blushed as all of his group heard about this development. Even if they had sort of known about it before, they now had confirmation, thanks to Chaos. Sonic resisted his urge to lash out at Chaos, and Blaze just grinned to see him frown and cross his arms. She said, "It's alright, Sonic. Most everyone here knew about it thanks to the last night we were on this plane."

Sonic shook himself from being embarrassed and said, "I don't know what I was doing. I think I remember most everyone looking at us at least once while we were over in that corner. Oh well, who cares?"

A raise of hands from his entire group caused him to blush again, and this caused both Blaze and Amy to giggle. Sonic whined, "It's not nice to make fun of me, y'know!"

This, in turn, caused everyone in his group to start snickering. Sonic took it to the next level by intentionally talking like he had a bad cold, suddenly. He said, "I'm group leader. Respect me!"

His voice sounded so weird and strangely high pitched that everyone practically burst out laughing if they weren't already laughing from his embarrassment. The other group looked over, and just shook their heads in confusion. Sonic said, "Alright, that's enough. Let's focus right now."

A speaker that was recently installed inside of the plane called, "Sonic's group, prepare to drop off in T-minus one minute, thirty seconds."

Sonic said, "You heard him. Let's get ready!"

_**I have a sort of plothole beginning to rip open, and I need to mend it before it grows too big...but that'll be taken care of in due time. Hope that you enjoyed, and sorry for the delay again.**_


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen: First assault

Sonic and his group found themselves dropped off out of Tails' plane out in the middle of the ocean on a large inflatable raft. It was still very early in the morning, so the sun hadn't quite risen, and a piercing cold shot through all of the people on the raft besides Chaos. Blaze was the most affected by it, because she possessed flame powers, and having flame powers meant that she was affected more by the cold as a side effect. Sonic looked at her shivering, and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Blaze managed to nod, and she said, "I'm just...freezing."

Charmy said, "I hate how cold it is in the mornings at this time of year."

Knuckles thought for a moment, and then asked, "It's in the middle of autumn, isn't it?"

Charmy replied, "Yep, and because of that...it's going to get blasted cold out here sooner or later, even in midday."

Sonic said, "Look, cold is something we all have to deal with. Let's just not think about it and get on with our mission right now, alright? You'll have time to complain about the cold later."

Amy thought, _Sheesh, Sonic. When did you become this serious?_

Chaos was in the water, pushing the raft towards the base. It was embedded into a rock, and from where they were coming in, they were going to have to climb in through some air vents to get inside the base unnoticed. Knuckles was already shuddering at the idea of having to climb through such small spaces, as was Amy. Rouge didn't seem to care too much about that. As they got closer, the air vent got into view, and Knuckles let out a slightly audible groan. It was just barely big enough for them to squeeze into, and had cold air flowing into it from outside. Now, Blaze was beginning to dread going in this way. The raft bumped up against the rock, and Sonic reached up and took the vent cover off. He said, "Alright, here's our way in."

Sonic pushed himself in, and almost pushed himself back out. The vent was iced on the inside, making it even harder to squeeze into, and it was extremely cold. Sonic gritted his teeth and pushed himself inside, despite how cold it was. He slid along, barely managing to push himself through. Then he heard grumbling behind him, a sign that Knuckles was coming in next. He then heard, "Oh lord...it's iced! How the heck am I supposed to get through this now?!"

Sonic didn't call out, not wanting to give away his position. He managed to take a turn and push his way out of the vent and into an empty storage room. He quietly called back into the vent, "Just push through, Knuckles! Take the first turn on your right!"

After a what felt like half an hour, Knuckles came pushing his way across the iced inside of the vent. He crawled out into the room where Sonic was, and then was shortly followed by the rest. Blaze was the first one after Knuckles, followed by Rouge, Amy, Charmy, and finally Chaos dripped through the vent. Sonic asked, "Alright, is everyone here?"

Chaos replied, _I made sure of that..._

Sonic replied, "Alright, let's get moving. Stay focused and don't get caught. Chaos, can you go on your own to find a way to disable the security systems?"

Chaos replied, _Can do._

He slid back into the vent, and Blaze asked, "Now what, Sonic?"

Sonic replied, "Now...we just wait."

Chaos slid back through the vent, and started going through the vents with ease. His watery composition made it exceedingly easy for him to do this noiselessly and quickly. He figured that, by peeking out into the various rooms, he could easily find the security room. However, it was going to take a while, because this base, he soon found, was really quite large. As he went zipping from room to room through the vents, he hoped that he wasn't taking too long. He really had no way of telling time inside these vents.

As he made his way through, he finally stumbled upon the security room. It had at least three guards inside, and he thought, _Not a problem as long as I'm careful._

He slid into the vents above the room, and then dripped through the ceiling vents into a shadowy part of the room. It was getting to be pretty well lit due to active computer screens all on one side of the wall, showing all of the different cameras, so it was hard for him to find a dark spot, but now, he just waited for the nearest unlucky soldier to pass by him. Soon, one did, and he grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows. There was a small bit of noise as he pulled him in, and then he knocked the guard out. One of the guards heard the noise and walked over to investigate. He, too, was pulled into corner and easily knocked out. Then, Chaos stretched his watery arm across the room and knocked the final guard out. He walked across the room over to the security console. He thought, _Alright...which one is it?_

He looked over all of the buttons on the screen, and then he found the one that he wanted to push. He pushed it, and watched with satisfaction as all of the camera views on the the wall went blank. He then zoomed back through the vents to the storage area that Sonic and friends were in and said, "Alright, coast is clear. All security devices disabled."

Sonic said, "Alright! Let's get moving!"

He opened the door and peeked out to see if there was anyone around. Upon seeing that there were currently no guards, he ran out and immediately headed towards the room across from him. He peeked in through a window on the door, and then ducked back. He went back and said, "There's a ton of guards in that room. I'm going to keep going down the hall. Blaze, Knuckles, you come with me. The rest of you go with Chaos and it's going to be his job to create a series of diversions."

Rouge said, "Alright, we'll do that. The question is...what are you doing?"

Sonic said, "I'm going to go and set of a chain reaction their reactor room that will detonate the base. We're going to have to get out fast after I'm done, though."

Blaze said, "Alright, let's go! I'd much rather be outside than in a base that's taking in freezing cold air!"

They began heading down the hallways in different directions, Sonic heading towards where he figured that the reactor was going to be, and the others to go cause a little trouble to keep the rest of the security distracted. Knuckles asked, "Are you sure that you know where you're going, Sonic?"

Sonic replied, "Yeah...I think."

Knuckles didn't say anything, instead rolling his eyes as they ran along the corridors. After a few minutes of running, they reached the reactor room, and found one person there. Sonic recognized him as the hedgehog that had blamed him for letting the Xenith loose. He stopped, as did the others behind him, but the hedgehog knew that they were coming. He said, "Well met, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic asked, "How did you know?"

The hedgehog asked, "Know what? Know that you were coming? The answer is simple. It all came from a few sources...none of which I will be disclosing to you in case you don't die."

Sonic said, "Hmph! If that's the case, then I guess I'm in for a fight."

The hedgehog replied, "Oh, yes you are. You're in for a major fight, one that you probably won't win."

He snapped his fingers and an energy barrier suddenly launched Sonic forward. He rolled into a ball, but then was kicked upward. He rolled out of a ball and was slammed on the back of the head by the hedgehog's fists. He slammed into the ground, and then he felt the hedgehog's foot come down on his back. He let out a groan of pain, and the hedgehog smugly said, "You didn't think you could deal with a martial arts master, did you?"

Sonic stayed put, his mind thinking of a way to deal with this hedgehog. He said, "You...will pay...for this..."

The foot pressed down on his back harder, and the hedgehog replied, "Brave words...but I don't think you'll live long enough to see them pass."

He began pressing down harder, trying to break Sonic's spine. But, before he could do that, Sonic suddenly spun into a ball, throwing the hedgehog back. He said, "Not today, Andro."

Andro stood up, and said, "You're tougher than you look."

Sonic grinned and said, "I am who I am. I am Sonic the Hedgehog!"

He dashed towards Andro, and kicked him in the stomach, using the momentum as his source of strength behind it. Andro coughed up blood from the sudden blow, and doubled over. Sonic then kicked him upward, and while he was in the air, he landed on him in a ball, spinning as fast as he could. His quills cut deeply into Andro's skin, and he smashed Andro into the ground. He rolled out and was about to stomp on Andro's face, but Andro caught it and flipped him upward. With surprising agility, he leaped upward and punched Sonic in the face, sending him spinning. Then, in the same motion, he kicked Sonic in the face, sending him back around the other way, where he finally delivered a skull breaking headbutt. Sonic fell back, groaning from the pain, and he felt something in his head fracture.

Both opponents landed, and Andro grinned. Sonic was holding his head, which was now bleeding. He was very dizzy, and could barely even think straight. The blow that Andro had delivered had been extremely severe. Andro said, "Now, we see who is the better, eh Sonic?"

Sonic stood up straight, and then was punched back into the barrier. He was now knocked out cold, and as Andro walked forward, he smirked as he prepared to finish him off. However, he noticed that one of the figures wasn't past the barrier, and the red echidna was smiling at him. He seemed confused, but then something came from above him and kicked him in the face. He was sent flying back, and crashed up against the generator. He stood up to see Blaze standing in front of him. She growled, "You won't touch another hair on his body!"

Andro grinned and said, "Oh...that's a mighty notion to think of...so, you're going to try and defeat me? I'm a martial artist-"

He was cut short by Blaze kicking him in the mouth, and she said, "You'll die now!"

In another moment, she forced him through the metal on the generator, and into the machinery. She watched with grim satisfaction as the machine tore him apart, and then started malfunctioning. The barrier deactivated, and she heard Knuckles yell, "C'mon! We've got to get Sonic out of here! He's badly injured!"

Blaze turned and said, "Alright, let's go!"

Knuckles picked up Sonic and they both began running. Rouge came up to them and said, "Follow me! Tails is waiting outside!"

Blaze asked, "Did he already complete his mission?!"

Rouge replied, "Yes, now hurry! We have to get out before the base explodes!"

Blaze and Knuckles followed Rouge out onto the runways that the base had, and they saw Tails' plane nearby. Blaze said, "C'mon! Hurry! We don't have much time!"

They managed to dash to the plane, and they got Sonic and themselves into the hold. Amy asked, "Goodness! Is he alright?"

Blaze replied, "We don't know, just hang on."

Chaos felt his head, and then thought to them,_ Sonic is going to need some serious medical attention, and fast. His skull has been fractured in the front, meaning that he is in grave danger of dying right now..._

_**Whew, sorry about delay again...I'm just having a rocking time on RP forums...hope that you're still enjoying this story!**_


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty: Talk of royalty. An extreme decision

Blaze found herself reluctantly walking through the hallways of the palace, heading to the throne room. The king had summoned her to the throne room right after the mission, but she hadn't wanted to leave Sonic's side. She feared even now that he was going to die. However, she was persuaded to go to the throne room despite Sonic's injury, and at first she managed to push her worrying aside. Now, it was returning to her. She asked herself, "Am I going to have to watch him die? I've grown to love him...just to see him die so early in our lives?"

She reached the throne room doors and briefly stopped. Something in the back of her head told her that something drastic was going to happen when she entered. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. She found the king sitting in his throne, currently reading a book. He looked up, and said, "You've finally arrived. I was wondering if you were even coming or not."

Blaze walked in and said, "I apologize. Sonic...we think he may die. He sustained a very bad injury during our mission."

The king seemed surprised by this news, and said, "Unfortunate. Most unfortunate. Well, the doctors will do what they can to keep him alive and save him. Until then, we have important matters to discuss. Please, take a seat."

A servant pulled up a chair for her to sit in, and she sat in it, facing the king himself. He looked down at her and said, "Now, I have heard about your heritage, Blaze. If I remember, you were the next in line to take the throne several years ago. However, something happened, something that even my wisest and most knowledgeable sages don't know, happened to cause you to lose your place."

Blaze replied, "I...I think so. Shadow told me about that."

The king said, "Yes, and now I wish to speak with you about what you think about your heritage. There are several options you can take as of now. You can accept the offer of the throne, and take it when I die of old age...which isn't that far from now. You can-"

Blaze interrupted, "You? Die of old age? You're not that old, are you?"

The king replied, "I may look young due to the magic of this place...but I am, in truth, over ninety years old. Soon, even the magic in this kingdom won't be enough to sustain me. Now, going on...you may choose to be with your friends and not take the throne, in which case this kingdom would die out, as I have no heir. Or, you may do both in a fashion."

Blaze began thinking, and then asked, "What are the consequences of these choices?"

The king took a deep breath, and replied, "The first option would leave you under no obligation to directly help your friends. You would have control over this entire kingdom, something which I am not sure you are quite ready for. The second option would leave this kingdom with no ruler after I die, meaning that it would crumble. The third...you might already guess what dangers lie there. You might die out in battle, and then that would have the same effect as the second. Or, something bad may happen in this kingdom while you are away in battle, and you may lose control."

Blaze found that she was hardly listening to the king's words. She was too focused and worried about Sonic to even think about trying to pay attention to what was being said. Even now, she couldn't make up her mind on which of the options to take. She asked, "Can I make up my mind later? I'm...worried about Sonic right now."

The king replied, "Take all the time you need. However, don't forget about this. Your answer will determine the fate of this kingdom...and your life."

Blaze stood up and turned to leave. The king said, "One last thing."

Blaze turned around to face him again, and he said, "The Sol emeralds...we've found where they are. If you can gather them, you might also be able to use them to find the Chaos Emeralds. Just keep that in mind..."

Blaze replied, "Alright, I will. Thanks."

She turned and left. She walked down the hallways, her mind fixed on Sonic. She couldn't focus on anything else. She didn't want him to die...and she was highly worried that he would. Her worries, her fears, kept escalating the more she thought about it. Her heart was an iron weight, waiting to drag her down. She tried to fight thoughts of him dying, but they stuck to her. Then, much to her relief, a voice asked, "Are you alright, Blaze?"

It was Amy Rose. Blaze turned around and let out a sigh before saying, "No...I'm sick with worry. I can't help worrying about Sonic."

Amy said, "I know...I'm worried about him too. However, he's in good hands. The doctors here have some of the best surgical technology in the world here. Apparently, they had stolen some from G.U.N before."

Blaze replied, "That's great! Maybe they can repair his skull without hurting him!"

Amy replied, "Yeah...but that's not the main problem. I've heard that the frontal lobes affect personality to some degree. If he does survive, there's a chance he won't be the same Sonic he was before."

Blaze stared at her, stunned. She asked, "What do you mean? Do you mean that he could go from nice and easygoing to someone more serious and maybe even evil?"

Amy replied, "The doctors said it has a high chance of being that major."

Blaze nearly fainted, but she kept her ground, stumbling back a bit. Amy gasped and rushed over to support her, asking, "Are you alright?"

Blaze replied, "I'm...fine. At least, I think I am."

Amy said, "Well, as long as you aren't going to faint..."

Blaze straightened up and asked, "Where is Sonic right now?"

Amy replied, "I'll show you."

She led Blaze to one of the rooms where Sonic was being kept. Blaze could see through a window on the door that Sonic was perfectly fine. The surgery had been completed without any problems. One of the doctors walked up and asked, "Are you worried about him?"

Blaze asked, "Will he survive?"

The doctor, an older gray wolf, replied, "Yes, he will. I can guarantee that. However, the chances that he will have a change in personality are extremely high. How drastic it will be...we don't know."

Blaze replied, "As long as he's alive...that's good." She felt a wave of relief sweep through her. She let it out in a sigh.

Amy said, "Alright! Now Sonic can come back to help us! When will he be ready?"

The doctor replied, "Surprisingly, he didn't go into a coma because of this. He'll back by tomorrow."

Blaze was suddenly filled with a excessive joy. Sonic was going to be up and about extremely early, all thanks to a miracle. She wanted to cry out for joy, but she kept it in herself. She said, "Thank you, doctor. You don't know how grateful I am."

The wolf replied, "It is my duty to help those in need."

He walked off, and Blaze said, "Well...now I know."

Then, she remembered what the king had told her about the heritage, and said, "I'll be right back..."

If Sonic was going to be alive, she figured, she might as well take the third option. She still wanted to be with her friends, and if Sonic married her, he would become king and be by her side. That would give her enough strength to rule. She walked back into the throne room, and found a horrifying sight. The king, young as he seemed before, now was dead and appeared extremely old. The servant ran to her, and said, "Miss, please! You must make your decision now! The king, he's..."

Blaze looked over at the king, and at first stepped back, horrified. However, she gained her strength and walked over. She placed her hand on the crown and said, "Even though I will not leave my friends...I will still take the throne. I choose your third option, your majesty."

_**Me and my slow uploads nowadays...hopefully, I'll be able to pick these back up soon.**_


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One: Changed personality...for the better

Sonic woke up in his bed, feeling extremely weird. He sat up, and looked around to find himself in his room. The front of his head throbbed painfully, but he could live with that. He looked around to see no one else in the room. He stood up and walked to the door, wondering how long he had slept. The memories of what had happened during his fight with Andro came back to him, and he said, "Wow, that was a close call..."

Sonic walked outside and saw Shadow standing in a corner nearby. Shadow said, "Nice to see that you're up. It's about time, too."

Sonic asked, "What's up, Shadow? Where's Blaze?"

Shadow replied, "She's in the throne room, being crowned queen at this moment."

Sonic's eyes shot open wide. He said, "No way! I have to be there!"

Sonic looked at his clothing, and noticed that he was nowhere close to being prepared for such a formal occasion. He booked back in to his room, and a few seconds later, came out in a fully done suit. Shadow chuckled as he saw him dash out and said to himself, "Always on the move...though that's odd. He usually doesn't care about being formal."

Sonic finished tidying up his uniform, and stopped in front of a mirror for a brief moment to see that it was on right. Then, he kept going, and arrived at the throne room doors. There were two guards standing guard there, and when they saw Sonic, they said, "Ah, please come in, Sonic! The princess refuses to be crowned until you are present."

Sonic replied, "Alright. Thank you, sirs."

Neither one of the guards noticed any difference in Sonic. He walked in, standing tall and straight. All eyes turned towards him as he walked in, and his friends didn't seem confused. They hadn't known that he had made a pretty big deal about showing up in a formal suit. They also didn't know what thoughts were running through his head at the moment. He looked at Blaze, clothed in a colorful red robe, kneeling in front of the pope, waiting to be crowned. The pope finished stating, "I crown you queen."

Sonic smiled as he saw Blaze rise, and then walk towards him. Two bodyguards walked by her side, making sure that she was completely protected. They stopped in front of Sonic, who kneeled. Blaze said, "Don't kneel before me, my love."

Sonic looked up at her, and then stood. She said, "I don't think it is right that my own lover should bow before me, even when if I am now queen."

Sonic replied, "I am sorry. I just...thought it to be the right thing to do."

Blaze immediately noticed the change in the way his voice sounded. He sounded more serious and thoughtful instead of being the go-lucky and ever daring person he used to be. She wondered if this was a good thing or a bad thing. No one else noticed it quite yet. Blaze said, "Thank you for being so respectful. I suppose it is only natural, since I have become queen."

Shadow walked inside, and said, "Dang. I'm too late to see the crowning."

Tails turned to him and said, "You're always too late for everything important, Shadow."

Blaze looked over at him, and Shadow asked, "Blaze, notice anything different about Sonic here?"

Sonic asked, "What do you mean?"

Blaze didn't want to lie, because that would hurt her, but she also didn't want to tell Sonic that she knew that his personality was now different. His memories might also have been affected as well. She bit her lip, and said, "Sonic...after that incident with Andro...I'm afraid that a change has come over you."

Sonic turned to her and asked, "What do you mean?"

Blaze replied, "Your brain was partially damaged during the fight. Part of your memories and personality have probably been affected."

Sonic stared at her in disbelief, and asked, "When...did this happen?"

Blaze thought, _I'm right. The doctor's were right. His memories and personality have been warped._

Tails shuddered upon realizing what they were talking about, and thought, _Sonic? He's now got a different personality? Oh no..._

Sonic said, "Wow...if that's the case...wow..." He stepped back, rubbing his head in thought. He finally said, "Well, I'll believe you. Still, my mind is telling me something other than what you're saying. I remember everything that happened..."

Blaze thought, _It's just been warped. You have no clue how it really happened, even though the main events stayed in your head..._

Blaze said, "Well, whatever the case is, Sonic. We must have a talk. In private, though. I don't want anyone overhearing what's being said."

Sonic seemed surprised, but he said, "That sounds good. Where were you thinking of having this private discussion?"

The new tone of Sonic's voice was getting to Blaze. It slightly bugged her, actually. However, she figured she would get used to it eventually. She said, "Let's head to your room, Sonic. There, we can have our discussion. I have a great many things to tell you..."

They went to his room, and she told the bodyguards to wait right outside the door. Then, she sat down on the bed. Sonic asked, "What did you want to talk about?"

Blaze replied, "I've been crowned...but I had worries about what would happen when I was made queen."

She paused for a moment before continuing, "I've just felt worried, worried about you surviving, worried about what would happen when I made my decision...I've been worrying about a lot of things. Most of all, though, I want to ask you something. Do you still love me?"

Sonic seemed surprised at her question. He replied, "Of course I love you! Why would you ask a question like that?"

Blaze asked, "Do you love me enough...to marry me?"

At that, Sonic briefly processed the question. He replied, "Yes...yes, I do."

Blaze looked at his face, and saw that he was perfectly sincere. She felt a wave of sudden joy sweep over her, and she asked, "Really?" She hadn't expected him to say yes.

Sonic smiled and said, "If I had a ring...I'd propose right now. It's amazing that love can grow this quick, eh?"

Blaze thought, _You're telling me! I thought that you weren't going to say yes!_

Blaze leaped up and embraced him. She said, "Oh...Sonic...my love."

Sonic asked, "Will you marry me?"

Blaze replied, "I most certainly will, Sonic!"

He kissed her on the lips, and for a moment, they held that kiss. Then, they pulled back, and embraced again. Blaze had a happy purr running through her, as she was overflowing with joy. As Sonic thought more and more about marrying her, he too began to fill with joy. He said, "This day...I don't think I'll forget it."

The guards outside hadn't heard what their discussion was, though when they heard silence, they began wondering what was going on. One guard asked, "You think they're....you know..."

The other guard replied, "Don't even go there!"

They both went silent. Then, Blaze and Sonic walked back out, hand in hand. The guards followed them, still wondering what the discussion was about. As they walked out, Blaze asked, "When do you think we should, Sonic?"

Sonic replied, "We can do that whenever you are ready. As for me...I'll always be ready."

Blaze said, "Alright. For now, let's see if Shadow has cooked up any more plans."

Sonic replied, "Alright, we'll do that. Hopefully, Shadow doesn't send me on another suicide run..."

_**Done with this chapter! Alright, now for a heads-up. After this story, I will begin a series of DBZ stories that are basically what-if stories. If any of you have heard about this in Supersonic Warriors and what not, then you'll know what I'm talking about. If you haven't...well, just look at how the stories go. You'll get the idea...anyways. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**_


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two: Elite ninjas

Emerald hung off of the ceiling, looking around the room with her sharp eyes. She and Espio were in a G.U.N base, and their job was to sabotage it from inside so that the team could use it as a base. Now, both were in separate rooms, trying to regroup after accidentally infiltrating at the wrong places. Espio suddenly asked over their two way radio, "I've cleared my room. How are things on your end?"

Emerald replied, "I'm still trying to find a good moment to strike. Just give a moment..."

Then, all of the guards finally walked into the center of the room. They began conversing among themselves, talking about when their shifts ended. She whispered, "Your shifts end now." She then threw two kunai knives and one shuriken. All three guards fell over dead. She said into her radio, "Now my rooms cleared. What room are you in? Can you tell?"

Espio thought for a moment, and then replied, "I'm in a storage room of some sort. There's a bunch of weapons crates lying about...and there's a few pods also."

Emerald looked around her room, and saw that it was also a storage room. This one, however, had a bunch of food and medical supplies lying about. She said, "I'm also in a storage room. There's a bunch of food crates and medical supplies in here."

Espio said, "Then we're right next to each other. Is there a window on your right side?"

Emerald looked over, and saw Espio wave. She said, "Hi. I guess that we should regroup right outside, then."

Espio dropped to the ground, and so did Emerald. She ran over to the door and opened it. It slid open, and she immediately threw a kunai right into a guard's neck. He had been right outside the door. Espio came out his door right as she picked the kunai out of his neck. Espio said, "Alright, that little part is solved. Let's go."

Emerald followed Espio down one of the dimly lit hallways. She wondered why it was so dimly lit, as most G.U.N bases were usually very well lit. Something was beginning to bug her about what was going on in the base. As they moved from hallway to hallway, she immediately noticed that most of the base was strangely deserted. She went to warn Espio, but knowing that he was probably too intent on what he was doing to pay attention, she merely thought, _Something's not right here..._

Espio had also begun to notice the lack of soldiers, and thought to himself, _This is unusual...something or someone is waiting for us._

Finally, they finished searching the hallways for any sign of life, and after finding none, they were both worried. Something had driven G.U.N out of the base, and neither wanted to know what it was. However, Espio felt that he had to figure it out, and kill it if necessary. Emerald was just following Espio, hoping that he wasn't doing what she thought he was. As they headed further into the base, her fears became confirmed. He was searching for the thing that had cleared out the G.U.N base. She didn't stop, despite her entire will telling her to. Her strong discipline allowed her to keep herself moving, despite her fears.

Finally, as they turned down what felt like the fiftieth hallway, Espio stopped. Emerald, who hadn't expected the sudden halt, barely stopped right behind him. She stood perfectly straight and still on her tiptoes, doing her best to hold herself there. Espio was also standing perfectly still, and as Emerald did her best to look past him without actually moving her head, she saw a horrifying thing. There was a pure black creature staring right at them. It hadn't actually noticed them, as it was staring past her and Espio. It finally turned away, not having noticed them. Espio barely moved, however, and it turned back over. He stopped, and Emerald realized that it could sense motion. It watched that area carefully for a few seconds, and then turned away. Espio whispered, "Move...but do it extremely slowly. We can't have this thing noticing us..."

Espio began moving his hand towards his belt, very slowly. The creature didn't notice the motion, since it was so slight. Espio's hand was barely moving a centimeter a second. Emerald followed at right about the same speed, keeping her eyes on the monster. It stayed turned away, instead looking down the opposite hallway. They both got their kunai knives, and pulled them out. Espio then whispered, "Aim for its eyes. See if that works...I don't know what this is, but I'm going to try to kill it."

Emerald replied, "Alright, I'll get the right eye." She wanted to tell him to be careful, but she also knew that he knew what he was doing. As they slowly drew the kunai knives up, Espio suddenly made a quick motion with his other hand. The creature spun around, and realized too late what had happened. The knives flew through the air with extreme precision, and each one hit an eye. It roared in pain, and then charged at where they had been. Both ninjas leaped aside, and it charged into the hallway that they had been standing in and crashed into a wall at the end. Espio then threw a shuriken, finishing it. Emerald suddenly cried, "Look!"

There were two more of that same creature, both looking at them intently. They knew that they were there, and no amount of moving was going to help them now. Espio said, "Alright, now we fight them. Use whatever strategies that you can think of."

Emerald replied, "Right. Here we go!"

They both dashed towards one. Emerald pulled out her katana as the creature rushed her, and then when it swung at her head with a clawed paw, she slid underneath it and cut it along the underside. It fell over, whining in pain. She turned around and threw a shuriken into the back of its neck, killing it. It slumped over, black blood flowing onto the ground. She looked up to see Espio already done with his. She turned when she heard growling, and saw about three more down the hallway. She stood perfectly motionless, hoping that they wouldn't notice her, but it was already too late. They knew she was there, and they began charging at her full speed. Thinking quickly, she dug out two more shurikens and threw them, aiming at the throats of two of the beasts. She hit one in the throat, but failed to hit the other one where she had wanted. She readied her katana as the two beasts charged at her. Espio suddenly threw a shuriken, hitting the one that she hadn't quite hit. It fell over dead, leaving her with the last one to deal with. It leaped at her, trying to knock her over so it could bite at her throat. However, she cut its head off before it reached her and then rolled aside. The body collapsed onto the ground, and black blood shot out from its neck.

Espio called, "Good work! But, there's more of them coming...about twenty to be precise! We need to get some heavier weaponry!"

Emerald called back, "Let's get back to the storage room you were in! There should be something of use there!"

She began running back there, being very good at retracing her own steps. She ran back to the storage room, and then she dashed into the one that Espio had been in. To her satisfaction, there were still quite a few weapons crates, and she began digging through the crates. Espio joined her, and they quickly dug out a bunch of weapons until they found a machine gun for the each of them, a grenade launcher for Espio, and miniature gatling gun for Emerald. Then, the creatures burst into the room that they were in, and Emerald opened fire. The entryway was filled with smoke and blood as she shot, until finally, she was sure that there were no more. As the smoke cleared, the mutilated bodies of the hounds became visible.

She smiled and said, "Alright, that's the end of that."

Espio replied, "Maybe not. I'll bet there's more of them out there..."

Emerald asked, "How are we going to kill them all?"

Espio replied, "We hunt them down and destroy them. We aren't leaving until this base is completely secure."

Emerald sighed and said, "I don't like the sounds of that..."

Espio asked, "What would you rather do? Go back empty-handed, or do the dirty work here and get something out of it?"

Emerald didn't hesitate to answer that question. She replied, "I'd rather get the work done." She wasn't sure that she was quite ready for this, though.

Espio grinned and said, "Alright, that's good to hear. Now, let's move out."

He left, taking the left path. She heard a few gunshots and knew that there was going to be more. She sighed and said, "Why does it always have to end up this way? I wonder where these things came from...?"

She walked out and took the path to the right. She fired a burst from her machine gun as a dark hound rounded the corner, and sighed with relief when she saw that she had hit her mark dead on. She walked past that dead hound, and then saw about four pairs of eyes gleaming at her in the darkness. She fired two bursts before the other two were nearly upon her. She managed to get off one more burst, killing one of the remaining two, and then she swiftly pulled out her katana and slashed at the remaining one. She decapitated it easily, and it flew past her, a bit of the black blood landing on her cheek. She brushed it off and continued on.

Suddenly, Espio radioed her, and said, "I've found the security room. From what I can see on the cameras...there's about forty more here..."

Emerald replied, "Alright, I'll keep an eye out. Let's regroup after each of us kills twenty."

Espio said, "Sound's good to me. Over and out."

Emerald turned off her communicator and continued down the hallway. She had snuck a few grenades from Espio while he wasn't looking, and planned to use them. The next set of eyes popped up, and she fired a burst. She heard a yelp, and then the body banged against a crate in that hallway as it fell over. That was the first. Then, as she turned down that hallway, another set of eyes nearly met hers. She instantly decapitated the hound with her katana and watched the body fall. She saw more ahead, a lot more. She unpinned a grenade and threw it into their midst. Since they reacted to motion, they dove for the grenade and piled on top of it, and then she watched as the bodies all flew away. All of the hounds had been killed by the explosion that had ensued.

She counted the bodies, and said, "Alright, that's twelve..." She looked down the hallway to see five hounds already charging her. She said, "Eat this!"

She sprayed bullets in their path with utmost precision, killing them with ease. Suddenly, an explosion rang out right next to her, and she looked over to see a tall hound. He was standing, with the same red glowing red eyes, and holding a rocket launcher. It launched another rocket at her, and she easily stepped aside and fired a spray of bullets at him. They bounced off of his skin like they would off of armor. He fired another rocket at her, and she leaped over. She pulled out her mini gatling gun and began blasting at him. The impact was knocking him back, but wasn't hurting him in the least. He suddenly fired a rocket that barely grazed her cheek. She leaped back and threw a grenade at him. He knocked it back, only to have it explode between them because of a shuriken hitting it. She had thrown her last shuriken to keep the grenade from exploding on her.

She was now backing off, away from the hound. It seemed invincible, as her weapons just bounced off of it. Then, a grenade hit it on the side of the head and exploded, sending it flying back. Another grenade flew down the hallway that it had been shot down, and then black blood came flying from that area. Espio walked into view and asked, "You alright? I think we've killed them all."

Emerald said, "Let's hope so..."

Espio said, "Alright, I'll radio Sonic. Good work, by the way."

He pulled out his radio and called Sonic, reporting mission success. Emerald smiled and said, "If he hadn't been here, I would have died. I think I owe my life to him...again."

_**Sorry about long delay...I had a lot of other things that I was doing. Please forgive me!**_


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three: Silver's second date

_**I haven't worked on this couple that much. Therefore, I think I'll get this couple moving. Also, I'll be adding in my OC, probably...**_

Silver felt somewhat nervous about dating Amy again, but he knew that she liked him, and he liked her a lot. So, he had asked her out again, and she had accepted. They were going to watch some coliseum matches, something that Amy had thought might be quite fun. She had never seen coliseum matches before, so she figured that now would be a perfect time to see what they were like. Silver just hoped that she didn't freak out if there was any particularly gory fighting.

As he waited near the entrance, he finally saw Amy come in normal clothes. She figured that it was going to be a rough-and-tumble place, so she didn't want to bring anything expensive looking or pretty. She had let her hair down, and as she approached Silver with a smile on her face, Silver just felt awed. Amy said, "Thank you for bringing me here, Silver!"

Silver replied, "Sure thing! I have the tickets all ready to go."

Amy walked up to him and she took his hand as they walked into the coliseum. Silver felt happy, which was something he wasn't used to feeling. He smiled as he held her hand and walked in with her. He let go when she wanted him to let go...which was as they ascended the stairs. She felt more comfortable not holding someone's hand as she went up stairs, he guessed. He didn't blame her. He had felt the same way when going up stairs.

They reached the upper seats of the coliseum, and Amy said, "I'm going to enjoy the view from here!"

Silver replied, "Me too! I love being up high."

Amy asked, "You do? Cool, that makes six people that I know that like being up high, besides me."

Silver watched as the first match commenced. It was two hedgehogs, both with bland brown color, down in the ring. Both walked towards each other, wearing no armor, no shields, and both had curved blades. Amy watched with eagerness as both fighters approached each other, and then both began fighting. Neither could really catch the details of the fight, but it was quite intense from what they could see. Then, one of the fighters struck the other down, and a loud cheer rose up from the crowd. Amy complained, "I couldn't see a thing!"

Silver asked, "Do you want to move down? I warn you...the battles are very gory."

Amy stopped, and then looked over at him in surprise. She asked, "They're...really killing each other?"

Silver replied, "That's what they do."

Amy said, "Oh...so this is a different kind of coliseum than the ones that I've seen."

Silver said, "These now modern day ones are fake. They don't really kill each other...it's acting. These gladiators, though, are fighting for real. They really kill each other."

The crowd began cheering again, this time as a white hedgehog and normal fox stepped into pit below. Silver thought he recognized the white hedgehog from somewhere, but he didn't remember from where. Then, the fighters began fighting, and both seemed equally matched at first. Again, Silver and Amy couldn't catch the particulars of the probably amazing fight, as they were quite high up. Then, the fox fell over dead. The white hedgehog was unscathed, Silver barely noted. He hadn't been hit once. He watched as he just turned and walked away. The crowd didn't once cheer for him, as if they hated him. His mind could feel that they badly hated this hedgehog for a number of reasons, one of the main being that he was too good to provide any entertainment, always killing any opponent he faced with too much ease. Another was that...he had a demon in him?

_What? How does he have a demon in him? He looks...normal..._he thought.

Amy commented, "No one's cheering..."

Silver said, "Yeah, I know...I wonder why..."

He figured that he would have to tell her later, but for right now, he now had a major riddle to solve. If he knew this person, and he had a demon in him, then that limited the number of people down to only two. A hedgehog named Riku, and another hedgehog whose name Silver couldn't recall. He said, "Weird...I know that hedgehog from somewhere...but I don't quite remember who he is..."

Amy suddenly got called, and said, "Oh! Sonic's wanting us to come back to the palace."

Silver asked, "In the middle of this huge tournament? Oh great..." He was actually rather enjoying Amy's current company.

Amy was about to stand up, when an arrow shot just above her head and embedded itself in the the person behind her. She gasped, and Silver looked down. He saw a group of shadowy people standing below him, and he recognized them instantly. He cried, "This guys are Ixis' goons!"

Two of them charged up the stairs, but he blew them back using his psychic powers. He then made the one with the bow float into the air, and then he shot him down into the pit below. The other two stood up, but then Silver smacked them into one another. He said, "Amy, follow me! We need to get out of here!"

He began running down, with Amy following close behind. Amy said, "Silver, watch for more of them!"

Silver knew that there was going to be more. There were probably a lot more inside this dreadful place. As he turned and they began to run down the staircase, more of the shadowy people started coming up the staircase. He picked them up and threw them down the staircase as hard as he could using his powers, and then they continued down. He was already getting tired from having to use his powers this extensively, and wondered if the suits they were wearing were resistant to his powers. He felt something strange as he was throwing them around, and he figured that he was probably right. He made a mental note in his mind that he was going to have to find some help and soon, otherwise he would be too tired to use his powers, and that wouldn't be good.

Silver saw the white hedgehog at the base, fighting five different people. He didn't seem to be having that much trouble, as they weren't as experienced as he was. He easily killed them, not wasting his time with them at all. He then turned and said, "Long time no see, Silver."

Silver said, "I knew that I recognized you from somewhere, Riku."

Riku looked away and said, "You'd better get out of here. We've got lots more company coming, and they're not going to be this easy."

Silver said, "These ones were meant to be able to resist my power and weaken me so that the others could kill me."

Riku said, "I've already killed about fifteen of them. You're lucky, Silver."

Silver smirked and said, "Boastful as ever, eh?"

Riku said, "I have a reason to be, now."

He began walking down a hallway, and then about three more people burst through. They were more heavily armed and armored, though they still had medieval style weapons. Riku said, "Alright, stand back and watch a master at work."

One of them had dual blades, and the other two had spears and heavy armor. The one with the dual blades, a hedgehog, leaped forward with a battle cry. Riku steppe aside as he tried to cut him in half with both the blades, and brought his blade upward. The hedgehog practically fell on top of it, and the blade cut his neck. Then, he focused on the other two, who were humans. He leaped towards one, leaping over the spear, and stabbed his throat. Then, the other one threw his spear like a javelin, and nearly hit Riku. Riku barely leaned to the side, and then spear grazed him. Silver then slammed him into the wall, knocking him out. He found that it was easier to move that person than it was for him to move the other ones, proving his theory correct.

Riku said, "Alright, time for me to get out of here. I've got my freedom. A little cheaply, but I'm getting out nonetheless."

Silver replied, "I can help you with that if you want. Oh, Amy, what exactly did Sonic need us for?"

Amy replied, "I think he mentioned that Espio and Emerald had completed their mission, so we're moving onto the continent and are going to have better place to strike from."

Riku said, "Bring me along. I've been wanting to get off of this freaking island for a while now."

Silver said, "Alright, come on. I'm sure that Sonic wouldn't mind a new addition to the team."

Amy said, "Right...Silver! Watch out!"

Silver turned to see three heavily armored figures land. All three had glowing black blades, and approached the trio menacingly. Amy said, "Oh...this isn't good."

Silver replied, "I know what you mean."

Riku said, "Bring 'em. I'll kill them easily."

Amy said, "I'm not so sure about that..."

One of them charged Riku suddenly, taking his boasting as a challenge. Riku let him come towards him, and stepped out of the way of the sword. He swung upward, but his sword bounced off of the armor. Amy called for help, and Silver found himself having to throw two of the guys together. Both of them heavily fell over, and had a hard time getting back up. The one that had swung at Riku brought his blade around, forcing Riku to leap it. He cut again at his helmet, and knocked it off. The face beneath it was human, and Riku threw his sword into his head. He saw Silver lift up their broadswords and thrust them into the people. However, there were more of them coming, and Silver wasn't sure that he was going to have enough energy to fight back against them. Suddenly, arrows began to rain down upon them, and they weren't normal arrows, either. They had explosives attached to them, and Silver watched the whole place seem to explode. When the dust cleared, there was nothing left of the people.

Amy breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Talk about a crazy encounter..." She then said, "Silver, I thank you again for saving my life."

Silver replied, "Ah, there was nothing to it, really."

Amy replied, "No, I really thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you hadn't been with me, I'd already be dead."

Riku grinned and asked, "Got yourself a girlfriend, Silver?"

Silver blushed and said, "Well, she's not entirely my-"

Amy cut him short and said, "No, you are my boyfriend." She pecked him on the cheek, and Silver felt a blinding moment of bliss shoot through him for just a brief second. He had never dreamed of truly having a girlfriend before, and now Amy was his girlfriend. He would have asked how it had happened, but he just decided to flow with it.

Riku laughed when he saw the look of total astonishment on Silver's face, and said, "Yeah...now you know what it's like to be kissed by a girl."

Silver said, "Yeah...wow..."

Sonic came running up and asked, "What happened?"

Silver immediately snapped out of his state of astonishment and answered, "Ixis' people came and tried to kill us. Luckily, we had help, and we managed to hold out until reinforcements arrived."

Sonic said, "That's good...okay, you two are safe." He turned to Riku and asked, "Who are you?"

Riku replied, "Someone who's interested in joining your team."

Sonic thought about it for a moment, and then asked, "Can you follow orders?"

Riku replied, "I've been doing that for most of my life, so yeah."

He then asked, "Do you have any combat abilities?"

Riku sighed and asked, "What do you think the sword's for?"

Sonic replied, "Alright, then. I suppose you can join our little group. We could always use more people."

Riku said, "Thanks, Sonic. You won't regret it."

Sonic said, "Silver, Amy, and you...who are you?"

Riku replied, "The name's Riku."

Sonic said, "Riku...all three of you come and meet in the palace. We need to talk a few things over before we move over to the base."

Riku said, "Heh. I'm looking forward to this already."

**Next chapter done! Alright, I hope that I can keep this moving!**


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four: Big plans mean big consequences

Tails waited impatiently in the dark meeting hall of the new G.U.N base that they had possession of. He had been waiting for what felt like hours for everyone else to show up, and he was getting tired of just waiting. Tikal was there, waiting with him, but neither had said any words to each other. Tikal didn't want to interrupt Tails, thinking that he was in deep thought about something. Tails was waiting for Tikal to say something, not wanting to be the first to start the conversation. So, both sat there, both bored out of their skulls.

Finally, Sonic walked in, and noticed both of them sitting there. He asked, "What's going on?"

Tails replied, "Waiting...bored."

Tikal replied, "Same as him."

Sonic sighed and said, "Sorry...got everyone up as fast as I could. This base is so large, and I'm not exactly used to it, so I had a hard time finding everyone's rooms."

Tails asked, "Well, can we finally get the meeting going?"

Everyone else began filing into the room, and Sonic said, "Yeah, that's what we were going to do. How long have you two been here, unsupervised?"

Tails sighed and said, "About two hours, maybe less."

Sonic said, "Hmm...and nothing happened during that time?"

Tikal asked, "Why would anything happen during that time?"

Sonic shrugged and asked, "Just curious. Anyways, lets get down to the brass tacks."

Shadow walked in and laid out yet another map. Tails was beginning to wonder where he got all of these maps from. He laid the map out on the table, and said, "Alright, here's the deal. We're at the southern corner of this map. In the middle, lies Central City, the main area where we're going to be leading an attack."

Tails asked, "So wait...we're going directly into Central City?"

Sonic replied, "We don't have a choice now. The Xeneth is beginning to spawn creatures of darkness, Ixis is on the move, and G.U.N beginning to tighten up security all around. We can't wait any longer."

Tikal began remembering the chosen ones, and then wondered how this was going to play out. Sonic said, "Alright, here's the final battle plan. The Xeneth...I along with a couple of others are going to take it out. Then, we need to get into G.U.N's main headquarters and shut them down completely, possibly taking out the commander as well. Then, a group of others are going to locate Ixis' position so that we can take him and his band of loyal followers out."

Tails sighed and said, "I think that's just pure suicide."

Tikal replied, "No, it's not. Sonic knows what he's doing."

Knuckles asked, "I know why Tails is worried, though. How do you propose to perform these tasks?"

Sonic replied, "I have taken into account that there could be potential casualties. However, I suppose that it is a chance that we will have to take."

Amy was beginning to worry. Riku just laid back, thinking about what was going on carefully. He was running through all of the scenarios in his head, and figured that the most casualties would come from fighting the Xeneth. He asked, "Who exactly is going with you to stop the Xeneth?"

Sonic replied, "I'm going to go stop it. Me, Shadow, and yourself are going to fight it."

Riku said, "I didn't exactly agree to this..."

Sonic said, "That's too bad. I feel that you're going to be capable of handling it."

Riku stared at him. He didn't agree to going to fight some ultra powerful being when he signed up. He sighed and just laid back to listen to the rest of the plan. Sonic continued, "Now, the Xeneth is somewhere in the city causing havoc at the moment. G.U.N will do everything they can to stop us from killing it, as they know that they could easily control the world with it. However, that's where the people going to the main base come in. They'll go in, take out the G.U.N commander, and neutralize their networks. All of their communications will be useless, they won't be able to rely upon their computer people watching the city constantly...etc."

Tails said, "Sounds like a plan. Now...who's doing that?"

Sonic replied, "Tails, you and whoever you pick are going to do that. Then, I need Espio to take a team in and find Ixis. Do not engage him, but rather make sure that he isn't moving anywhere, and we'll take care of him once the time comes."

Espio asked, "Sonic, are you sure this is a good idea?"

Sonic replied, "It's the only chance we have at gaining a foothold at the moment."

Tikal warned, "Sonic...remember this. You may have big plans...but with big plans come big consequences. Just be ready...in case you fail or succeed."

Sonic replied, "We'll succeed. We have to succeed."

Espio warned, "It may cost...are you sure you're ready?"

Sonic replied, "...Yes. I'm ready."

Shadow said, "Alright, we have our plan. Tails, who are you bringing?"

Tails instantly replied, "Tikal, Chaos, Rouge, Knuckles, and Blaze. Will that be alright?"

Espio said, "I'll take the remaining group."

Sonic said, "Alright...here goes nothing."

**Sorry for the MAJOR delay. I was Rping and focusing on school. Prepare yourself for drama next chapter...(I'm going to be doing some things that may shock you...)**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-five: Desperate battle. Fatal trap. Prelude to Secret of the Fires.

Sonic crouched on the building tops, waiting for Tails signal. He, Riku, and Shadow were in position, ready to strike. How this would go, none of them knew. The Xeneth waited in the shadows, sleeping. Sonic was breathing calmly, Riku was tensed up, and Shadow was just breathing normal. Riku asked, "Are you sure about this, Sonic?"

Sonic replied, "No, but I know that we have to give this a shot. It's now or never."

Shadow said, "You shouldn't say that. What if there's another option that you haven't thought of?"

Sonic looked at him, and then asked, "What do you mean?"

Shadow replied, "I'm not sure myself. But, don't hesitate to retreat if you need to, Sonic. We don't want to lose too many people."

Sonic looked at the Xeneth, and said, "Okay...I'll remember that. Are we ready for the attack?"

Riku replied, "Ready when you are."

Shadow replied, "Same as him."

Sonic nodded and then looked for Tails' signal again. There was a slight flashing light in the distance, and Sonic took one last deep breath before saying, "Let's go."

They dashed towards the Xenith, and Sonic crashed into its head in a ball at high speeds. It awoke with a roar. Riku then slashed it along the belly and Shadow finished their combo by kicking its head downward with a mighty blow. It now stood up and swung at Sonic, who had rudely awoken it from its sleep. Sonic dodged, and Riku hit its belly again while it was open. There was now an X-shaped cut on its belly. It roared again, and Sonic watched as it swung at Riku. Riku leaped aside, and cut it along its paw as it swung down at him. It was now getting extremely angry, and Sonic knew that they were going to have to start being cautious. It suddenly blew black fire at Sonic, but he threw himself aside and through a window. The black fire melted anything it touched, and part of the road collapsed inward, turning into piles of magma. Sonic said, "That's not good..."

Riku attacked one of its eyes, but it swiped at him and knocked him aside. He slammed into a building and fell down, somewhat hurt. Riku stood up, groaning in pain, and then he was slammed again, this time being sent flying through a wall. Sonic called, "Riku!"

The Xenith turned towards him, and then a Chaos Spear hit it in the eye. It reared back and roared, probably attracting even more attention than they needed. Suddenly, Tails came over the intercom, "Sonic, we've got trouble! G.U.N figured out what we were doing, and are trying to stop us...we're doing the best we can, but this plan isn't going right all of a sudden."

Sonic thought, _That's not good..._

Shadow called, "Sonic, watch it!"

Sonic looked up, and then he dove aside at the last second to avoid its huge paws from smashing him into the ground. He spindashed up its arm and smashed into the other eye. It was now bleeding from that eye, and then it hit Sonic with one of its gigantic claws. Sonic rolled along it, and then got cut on the back by one of its claws. He let out a scream of pain and landed on the building near Shadow. Shadow said, "Maybe this wasn't the best idea?"

Sonic replied, "Maybe...I'm not sure!"

Shadow looked around for Riku and then the Xenith let out another roar. It's massive tail dropped to the ground and black blood shot out from where it had been attached. On the left side of the creature...landed Riku, covered in the dark blood. He said, "That should weaken it over time! Sonic, Shadow, I have an idea! I need you to keep it distracted!"

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other, and nodded. Shadow charged up while Sonic kept attacking, despite the sharp pain in his back. He rolled down its back, cutting it with his sharp quills and his super speed. It tried to flick its tail to knock him off, but it had no tail, so it failed. He rolled down to where its tail had been and then leaped off right as a huge number of Chaos Spears assailed it on the back like meteors. It swiped at Shadow while he was casting, but he merely teleported further away and continued his barrage. Riku got up onto one of the buildings, planning to strike at its eye, and then some. He had a protective mask on, Sonic noted, and he wondered what he was planning.

Shadow then got hit out of the air and sent flying a good two hundred yards away. It swiped at Sonic, and Sonic had to leap back to avoid being sliced into pieces. Then, Riku suddenly made his move. He leaped towards the eye, and literally delved inside. The creature let out a huge roar, which was suddenly silenced as it twitched. It fell, and Riku slid out of its eye socket, covered in even more dark blood. Sonic asked, "What did you do?"

Riku removed the mask, revealing that there was none on his face. He replied, "I hit it right in the brain, and cut into all of its lobes while I was at it!"

Sonic said, "That's all well and good, but we have another problem. We need to get to Tails and his group. I have a bad feeling, suddenly..."

Riku asked, "Why is that?"

Shadow came running up, and said, "C'mon, let's get to Tails, now!"

Riku asked, "What's going on?"

Sonic replied, "G.U.N knew what we were up to! We have to make sure that they're safe..."

Shadow said, "I haven't been able to contact any of them. I'm wondering if G.U.N is jamming our transmissions?"

Riku said, "That's...bad. C'mon, guys! We need to get going!"

Sonic said, "Follow me! I'll lead you to the G.U.N base!"

He began running off, with Shadow tugging Riku behind him with Chaos energy. Sonic was sure that this wasn't going to end well, and he was beginning to dread what was going to happen. They dashed on top of the buildings and began leaping from rooftop to rooftop to cover more ground faster. They're destination was the G.U.N base. Sonic kept trying to contact Blaze, one of the people who had went to attack the G.U.N base. He was gravely worried about her, as they had become engaged, after all.

Finally, they reached the entrance to the G.U.N base, and he finally got into contact with Blaze. He called, "Blaze? Can you hear me?"

Blaze's voice came weakly over the intercom, "Sonic...help..."

Sonic said, "Oh...god! No! Hang on, Blaze! I'm on my way!" He quickened his pace, outracing Shadow and Riku. Sonic had a bad feeling that something big was going to happen, and he was not going to like it one bit. He reached where he was sure they were, and saw them in the computer room, all of them, tired or beaten. Sonic saw Blaze being held up at gun point in front of all of them.

He called, "Let her go!"

The G.U.N commander himself turned around and asked, "Really? You think I would just do it that easily, Sonic the Hedgehog? You made a mistake coming here...and now you must pay a severe price for your intrusion. One that you, sadly, can't bring back."

Sonic heard the click of a safety on the gun, and he asked, "Wait...what?!" His eyes went wide with horror and he cried, "Wait! Don't shoot! No!!!"

A gunshot rang out, and for a moment, everything seemed to go in perfect, agonizing slow-motion. He saw the bullet ring through her head, the blood fly out, and she dropped. Everyone gasped in horror as the G.U.N commander stood there, a smirk on his face. Sonic's jaw dropped in horror, and then something snapped in him as the commander began laughing. There were still twenty robots, robots that Sonic would have a hard time breaching the armor on, and his friends were going to be killed next, he knew it.

The G.U.N commander said, "Kill them all!"

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Sonic looked up in a new kind of anger, one that he had _never_ before felt. He first muttered, "You bastard..." then, he yelled, "No!!!" He leaped forward as one raised a gun to shoot Tails, and kicked the gun aside. With one motion, he spun through it...effortlessly. He went at a speed that no one had imagined that he was capable of attaining, blurring through the robots faster than any of them could track. He tore through the robots in a frenzied rage, his blur now golden. After only five seconds, he landed in front of the G.U.N commander, glowing golden like he was super.

The G.U.N commander looked completely bewildered, and said, "This...this shouldn't be possible!"

Sonic said, "You will pay for this...you son of a-"

The G.U.N commander fired a shot. The bullet bounced back and hit him in the forehead. Sonic glared and said, "You're a fool."

The G.U.N commander fell, killed by one of his own bullets. Sonic then calmed down and for a moment didn't realize what was going on. Then, as he turned, his eyes fell upon Blaze. He nearly choked suddenly, and he dropped to his knees next to her. He said, "Blaze...can you hear me?"

Blaze barely turned her head towards him, and she faintly whispered, "Sonic..."

Sonic said, "Blaze! I'm going to get you medical attention, and fast! There should be a medical compartment here!"

He picked her up as Shadow and Riku arrived. Riku saw the scene, and muttered, "Oh...my...god..."

Blaze whispered, "Sonic...it's no use..." She sounded like she was struggling to even talk.

Sonic said, "Don't talk, Blaze. I can save you! I know I can! I have to!"

He dashed past Shadow and Riku on his way out. He began desperately searching for a medical facility, but Blaze whispered, "Sonic...take the kingdom...they need...someone to rule..."

Sonic said, "You'll be fine, Blaze! Hang in there!"

Blaze finally whispered, "Son...ic...I...can be...brought...by...the Fires..." she looked up and whispered, "I'm...being...called. Good...bye...Sonic..." She went limp in his arms.

Sonic stopped, and stared. She had gone completely limp, only a smile remaining on her face. He checked her pulse...there was none. Tears began to well up in his eyes as he realized what had just happened. He couldn't believe it. He asked, "Blaze? B-B-Blaze?! Say something! Oh...god..."

He collapsed onto his knees, holding her. He looked out into the hallway, filled with trashed robots, and spilled blood, and then he remembered the plan. People had died to do this, and one of them...his own lover...his soon to be wife. He cried, "Why?!" His scream echoed through the halls, and Riku and Shadow, as well as the others, heard it.. Riku said, "Oh no...it's not happening, is it?"

Sonic let his head fall onto her body as he started crying uncontrollably. He asked over and over, "Why me? Why me?"

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The next day, they stood in a special burial place for the heroes who had died in that battle. Sonic was in a formal suit, tears running down his face as he read the list of the two who had been killed somehow in the battle. The first one reported was Blaze the Cat, his true love. The next...Emerald. She had died chasing Ixis, who had escaped their grasp before they could truly catch them. She had died fighting honorably, alone, against innumerable odds. Espio hadn't been able to reach her in time, and had disappeared after that day. Sonic said, "We dedicate these names to those who died for the honor of this kingdom. Blaze, queen of this nation, and Emerald, a great helper and supporter. Blaze...she and I had plans to be married before this point, but now they are merely memories to look back on..."

He couldn't hold the tears back. They flowed freely down his face, and his voice began sorrowful and broken. He said, "Blaze...she and I...we had just gotten to love each other...and then this happened...I don't believe it..." He walked over and placed his hand on her black coffin, and said, "Blaze...may you rest in peace...my love."

He stepped back as a sad song started playing, and the people in his group began to weep openly for them. Sonic turned away, not able to look at the coffin. He looked up at the throne room, and said, "She told me to take it up. So...I must...for her sake."

Riku walked up and said, "Sonic, there's still hope."

Sonic asked, "Why? No, there isn't any hope!"

He left, and Riku watched him leave, too ashamed to show his face. Riku said, "The Secret of the Flames...I wonder what that old man meant by that? And what did he mean by finding someone to my liking in time? Hmm...if it's the key to destroying Ixis and brining peace to this world for once...I'm interested."

Amy looked over at Riku, who didn't seem sad in the least. She was crying, and she found herself mad at Riku for not feeling the same way. Riku saw her glance, and said, "If only she knew that I'm beyond grief nowadays...and beyond hope..."

_Several years later..._

Sonic was king of that nation. He had taken over the rule, but he never was known to be happy. He said that he could never be since that day. Riku wished that he had just moved on, but he didn't. Riku didn't bother thinking on it too much. He just went back into the solitude that he deserved. One day...things began to change in that now nearly ruined world...

"What's this?! An architect finds flames in a temple that are floating without any source of wood? Also finds a tablet saying, "The Secret of the Flames lies within this...temple...where have I heard about that...secret of the Flames?" Riku asked. He set the newspaper down and looked out into the park. He caught sight of a midnight blue hedgehog girl seeming lost. Being a good person, he walked over and asked, "May I help you, miss?"

The girl looked over, and she was only about a year younger than him...sixteen. She asked, "Excuse me, but you have you heard of a someone named Riku-kun?"

Riku said, "Um...Riku-kun? My name's Riku, and if you're looking for me..."

The girl said, "My name is Kara. Please, come quickly. Chaos-san says that she needs to see you and see if you are the one she's looking for!"

Riku stared at her bewildered. Kara began dashing out of the park, and motioning for him to follow. Riku said, "Here we go on another adventure."

_**You guys are going to kill me for what I did, but don't worry. I'm putting up a sequel to this story, and I'm basing it a lot off of what one of my other favorite writers did. Btw, Kara and Chaos belong to Inudemon02. They are her OC's. Stay tuned for more stories by me!**_

_**Quick question...what rating would you give me as a writer? (Bad? Average? Good? Exceptional? Those are the choices to choose from. See you all later! This is DarkCloud...signing off.)**_


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